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India continued their domination in bilateral T20I series as they beat Sri Lanka by 91 runs in the third T20I at SCA Stadium, Rajkot to win the three-T20I series by 2-1. It was a Suryakumar Yadav masterclass as he scored his third T20I century within six months to help India post a total of 228/5 and win the decider comfortably. India have been unbeaten in 12 bilateral T20I series win on the trot.
Tripathi proves himself
India did not get off to a good start as Ishan Kishan edged one to the wicketkeeper off the second ball he faced. Shubman Gill struggled and faced as many as nine dot deliveries before getting off the mark. Rahul Tripathi made up for the dot deliveries as he played a useful cameo of 16-ball 35 in his second T20I appearance. Tripathi hit five fours and two sixes in his 35-run knock before getting dismissed by Chamika Karunaratne. Suryakumar walked in to bat in the sixth over. India had a score of 53/2 after powerplay overs.
Suryakumar's magical show
While Gill took up the anchor role, Suryakumar in his typical fashion reached half-century from just 26 deliveries in the 13th over. The onslaught continued and Gill tried to match Suryakumar's energy as well. However, he missed out on a half-century as Wanindu Hasaranga got his wicket in the 15th over. Gill scored 46 runs from 36 deliveries including two fours and three sixes. He shared a 111-run partnership for the third wicket with Suryakumar.
Skipper Pandya and Deepak Hooda got out after contributing just four runs each to the score. Meanwhile, Suryakumar continued to hit big and got to his century from 45 deliveries in the penultimate over. This was his fastest T20I century. Also, he became the first non-opener to score three T20I centuries. Axar Patel played a crucial cameo of 9-ball 21 as India posted 228/5. The southpaw hit four boundaries in his cameo. On the other end, Suryakumar remained unbeaten for 112 from 51 deliveries including seven fours and nine sixes.
Sri Lanka fail in run chase
Chasing a mammoth target of 229, the required run rate climbed up despite a decent start from Sri Lankan openers. Axar provided the breakthrough in the fifth over with the wicket of Kusal Mendis (23). In the next over, Arshdeep Singh got rid of Pathum Nissanka (15) who was struggling to score at run-a-ball. After powerplay overs, Sri Lanka had 51/2 on the board, just few runs behind India at this stage.
Pandya got Avishka Fernando's wicket in the next over for a single-digit score. Charith Asalanka (19) and Dhananjaya de Silva (22) became Yuzvendra Chahal's victims after hitting a few boundaries. Hasaranga could not deal with Umran Malik's pace and got out after scoring just nine runs. Shanaka hit a few boundaries but Pandya returned to get Karunaratne out for a two-ball duck.
Malik's pace was too much for Maheesh Theekshana who got bowled. In his last over, Pandya trapped skipper Shanaka (23) in front of the stumps. Kasun Rajitha hit a few boundaries but Arshdeep got the wicket of Dilshan Madushanka to finish the game off. Sri Lanka got all out for 137 from 16.4 overs as they lost the game by a huge margin of 91 runs.
