India vs Sri Lanka: Shikhar Dhawan, spinners guide IND to 8th straight series win
Dec 17, 2017 20:51 IST
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Shikhar Dhawan’s 12th century helped India beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets to win the three-ODI series 2-1. (BCCI )
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India won the toss and opted to field. (BCCI )
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Jasprit Bumrah struck early as he removed Danushka Gunathilaka in the fourth over. (BCCI )
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But Upul Tharanga launched a brutal counter-attack on the Indian quicks, smashing Hardik Pandya for five successive boundaries in his second over. (BCCI )
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Playing his first game of the series, Sadeera Samarawickrama supported Tharanga and shared a 121-run stand with the former captain. (BCCI )
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Tharanga played some superb shots and completed his half-century. (BCCI )
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Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal broke the stand when Samarawickrama was out caught at deep cover for 42. (BCCI )
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MS Dhoni’s magnificent stumping to get rid of Tharanga (95) left the visitors tottering. (BCCI )
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Kuldeep Yadav, who took 3-42, got Niroshan Dickwella in the 28th over. (BCCI )
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Chahal, who finished with 3-46, compounded Sri Lanka’s problems by spinning one past Angelo Mathews’s bat with the right-handed batsman stunned by the amount of turn generated by the leg-spinner. (BCCI )
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Hardik Pandya took two wickets towards the end as Sri Lanka were all out for 215. (BCCI )
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In reply, Rohit Sharma fell for seven to off-spinner Akila Dananjaya in the fourth over. (BCCI )
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But Dhawan played his natural game and put on 135 for the second wicket with Shreyas Iyer to put India on course. (BCCI )
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Iyer slammed his second consecutive half-century of the series before he was out for 65, his knock including eight fours and a six. (BCCI )
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During the course of his match-winning knock, Dhawan crossed the 4,000-run barrier in his 96th ODI. He hit 13 boundaries and two sixes overall as he toyed with the Sri Lankan attack. (BCCI )
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India won the game with 107 balls to spare. This was their eighth consecutive bilateral ODI series win since June 2016. (BCCI )
