The Indian cricket team finally made it 3 victories in a row after they beat Sri Lanka in the 3rd T20I on December 24 at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. Stand-in Indian captain and the local boy, Rohit Sharma led the team for the first time at his home ground and came up with flying colours. Also, it was the 37th international match won by India in a calendar year and first T20I victory at the Wankhede Stadium.
Earlier in the game, India won the toss and opted to bowl first. The Indian bowlers didn’t lose the momentum and restricted the visitors at 135 runs by the end of 20 overs. All the five bowlers picked up wicket today. For the third consecutive time in this series, Jayadev Unadkat removed Lankan opener Niroshan Dickwella and drew the first blood. He went on to take two wickets in his spell of 4 overs. Hardik Pandya also bagged two wickets while Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraja and Kuldeep Yadav took 1 wicket each.
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India had an easy target to chase. Openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma provided a slow and steady start but lost an early wicket. Rahul (4) was dismissed by Dushmantha Chameera and the home team had the first blow. Rohit and Shreyas Iyer player for a little and added 22 runs for the 2nd wicket before Rohit Sharma lost his wicket after scoring 27 runs off 20 balls.
In the middle overs, Manish Pandey and Iyer anchored the inning and added 42 runs for the 4th wicket.
Towards the end, Dinesh Karthik (18) and MS Dhoni (16) took the game closer to victory and India won by 5 wickets with 4 balls remaining.
Squads:
India
Rohit Sharma (captain), Lokesh Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj, Basil Thampi and Jaydev Unadkat.
Sri Lanka
Thisara Perera (captain), Upul Tharanga, Angelo Mathews, Kusal Janith Perera, Danushka Gunathilaka, Niroshan Dickwella (wicket-keeper), Asela Gunaratne, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dasun Shanaka, Chaturanga de Silva, Sachith Pathirana, Dananjaya De Silva, Nuwan Pradeep, Vishwa Fernando and Dushmantha Chameera.
