Skipper Virat Kohli once again led from the front as India completed a historic 9-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka with a seven-wicket win in the one-off Twenty20 International match at Colombo’s R Premadasa Stadium on Wednesday.
Kohli, who hit his 30th ODI hundred in the fifth and final ODI match last Sunday, came after the fall of opener Rohit Sharma in their chase of 171-run target.
The Indian opener perished early in the innings, after scoring just nine runs in the third over with Lasith Malinga getting the prize wicket of his Mumbai Indians captain.
India have already completed series whitewashes in the Test, 3-0 and ODI, 5-0 before today’s match.
Kohli hit 82 off 54 balls with the help of seven fours and a six. In the process, he also breached the 1000-run mark while chasing in T20Is.
Pandey, who played a pivotal role in the last match, also played a brilliant unbeaten knock of 51 off 36 with the help of four fours and a six.
For India, young leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal was the pick of the bowlers with figures of three for 43 from his four overs, while chinaman Kuldeep Yadav scalped two for 20.
Put into bat, Sri Lanka made a hectic start with Niroshan Dickwella (17) attacking Jasprit Bumrah (1/38) at the start.
It forced India skipper Virat Kohli to introduce spin early into the powerplay in the form of Chahal.
Skipper Upul Tharanga (5) played on a Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/36) delivery in the third over.
Munaweera then went into an attacking mode as he carted Chahal for two sixes in the next over.
Dickwella added 23 runs with both Tharanga and Munaweera, as Sri Lanka reached 50 for two in the sixth over.
The turning point perhaps came when Mahendra Singh Dhoni pulled off a trademark quick stumping to dismiss Angelo Mathews (7) off Chahal in the seventh over.
It denied Sri Lanka an aggressive middle-order partnership.
SCORE BOARD:-
Sri Lanka (170/7)
India (174/3)
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