India complete third whitewash in a row as Shreyas Iyer stays unbeaten

India secured a third consecutive whitewash in the shortest format of the game as Sri Lanka was hammered by Iyer and company.

Opting to bat first, the visitors piled up 146 for the loss of five. Sri Lanka’s hero of the last match, Pathum Nissanka departed for cheap as Avesh Khan hit the slot perfectly. Mohammed Siraj castled Gunathilaka clean with an absolute peach.

Avesh Khan and Ravi Bishnoi ensured that the visitors could simply not get off the hook as they struck another double whammy, dropping the cream of the Lankan batting.

Dinesh Chandimal and Dasun Shanaka took over the reins from there and played an instrumental part in stabilizing the Lankan ship. The experienced duo played a fine knock that saw them stitching together a 31 runs stand.

Once Chandimal returned to the pavilion, Chamika Karunaratne played 19 balls to score just 12 runs while the skipper, Shanaka continued with his momentum, banging 74 runs from just 38 balls.

Avesh Khan claimed a couple of wickets and was perfectly supported by Mohammed Siraj and Harshal Patel.

The Indian batting had another shaky start as they lost their captain, Rohit Sharma and Sanju Samson early in the innings. It was Shreyas Iyer again who arrested the decline while Deepak Hooda played the perfect anchor.

Iyer blitzed his way through the middle as he upped the tempo by leaps and bounds with Hooda displaying intermittent bursts of brilliance.

There was a possibility of a late twist as Hooda and Venkatesh Iyer fell in quick succession but an assuring presence of Ravindra Jadeja effaced all fears, as India walked away comprehensively with the bragging rights.

This was India’s third consecutive series win and that too with a whitewash in the shortest format of the game while they also became the team with the highest number of wins against a single opposition surpassing Pakistan’s dominion against Zimbabwe. India now holds an unrivaled feat of 17 wins against Sri Lanka in T20I cricket that is the highest number of victories against an individual team by a specific opposition.

India’s next assignment will be a two-match Test series where they will be up against Sri Lanka from the 4th of March. The 2 contests will be played in Mohali and Bangalore respectively.