India vs Sri Lanka: R Ashwin's heroics seal the series for India
R Ashwin picked up 4 wickets for 8 runs as India beat Sri Lanka by 9 wickets in the third T20I and sealed the series 2-1. After losing the first T20I at Pune, India bounced back with two clinical performances and got the better of the visitors to clinch the series.
After putting Sri Lanka into bat, R Ashwin struck early as he dismissed both the openers in the very first over. In the third ball of the innings, Niroshan Dickwella danced down the track to loft Ashwin over the off-side, but ended up getting stumped by MS Dhoni. Two balls later, Tillakaratne Dilshan was adjudged LBW to Ashwin.
Ashwin struck again in his second and third over and the Lankans were reduced to 21-5 inside the first six overs. Sri Lanka never recovered as they kept on losing wickets at a regular interval. Sri Lanka should find themselves unlucky as there were some controversial decisions that went in favour of India.
Dasun Shanaka and Thisara Perera were the only two batsmen to get into the double digits as they scored 19 and 12 respectively. Ashwin picked up 4 wickets for the hosts while Raina scalped 2 and Ashish Nehra, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja picked one wicket apiece.
Chasing a relatively easier target of 83, India started off stadily as both Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan took their time to get set before gong for the killtreated the deliveries on it’s merits before Rohit was dismissed by Dushmantha Chameera.
Ajinkya Rahane walked in and made sure that there was no further hiccups ashe along with Dhawan sealed the match with 37 balls to spare. Shikhar Dhawan remained unbeaten on 46 and Rahane was not out on 22.
R Ashwin was named as the Man of the Match and Man of the series. With this win, India is set to become the number 1 T20 team in the world after going down following the first T20I loss to Sri Lanka.
Brief scores: Sri Lanka 82 (Dasun Shanaka 19, R Ashwin 48-) lost to India (Shikhar Dhawan 46*, Ajinkya Rahane 22*) by 9 wickets.
- Also read: Asia Cup 2016: India vs Sri Lanka Match Prediction and Pitch Analysis