The inevitable eventually happened as India scripted a flawless whitewash over Sri Lanka. It was another dominant performance from the Virat Kohli-led side and once again, the hosts didn’t have any answers to the might of the opposition.
Upul Tharanga won the toss and elected to bat first. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who had been wicketless in the series thus far made a stunning comeback and removed Niroshan Dickwella and Dilshan Munaweera pretty early. Upul Tharanga went on the counter-attack and took a liking to Shardul Thakur.
But the leading wicket-taker of the series, Jasprit Bumrah ended Tharanga’s threatening stay for 48. Lahiru Thirimanne and Angelo Mathews compiled a partnership of 122 runs but consumed 177 deliveries for that. The slow scoring stand hurt the flow of the innings and they found themselves in a desperate situation.
As they prepared to launch, Bhuvneshwar came back to remove Thirimanne and Kuldeep accounted for Mathews’s wicket. The remaining batsmen didn’t offer much and Sri Lanka were bowled out for 238 with Bhuvneshwar ending up with figures of 42/5.
India’s chase didn’t get off to a good start as Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma departed inside 8 overs leaving the side in a slight spot of bother at 29/2. But Virat Kohli, once again, prepared himself for a chase special knock. He found Manish Pandey for support and the duo added 99 runs for the 3rd wicket.
Pandey departed for 36 in the hunt to go big but Kedar Jadhav who came out to bat at No.5 ensured the side was in control all the time. Kohli kept knocking the runs down from the other end and reached his 30th hundred. Jadhav too brought up his half-century but got out for 63 when just 2 runs were required to win.
MS Dhoni had to walk in at the dying stages of the match. He quietly took a single to let the skipper score the winning run. Kohli struck a single down the ground to take his side home. He stayed unbeaten at 110 as India won the match by 6 wickets.
Here are the best tweets that congratulated India on a whitewash
Winners are grinners #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/hrzqlFqWPY
— BCCI (@BCCI) September 3, 2017
For his maiden five-wicket haul in ODI cricket, Man of the Match is @BhuviOfficial! #SLvIND pic.twitter.com/775mEITDy8
— ICC (@ICC) September 3, 2017
Well deserved. More impressively, @Jaspritbumrah93 has become spearhead of the attack in such a short time! https://t.co/lcsEvRaUky
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) September 3, 2017
@imVkohli on par with Ponting and @msdhoni going past @KumarSanga2 What a day for Indian cricket. #SLvIND #INDvSL
— Shubham Khare (@shubhamkhare71) September 3, 2017
Indian typical pacers to win Man of the Series award in an away ODI series:
Bhuvneshwar Kumar
JASPRIT BUMRAH* #SLvIND— Umang Pabari (@UPStatsman) September 3, 2017
It is 5-0. While Sri Lanka had the odd moment, it was never going to be anything else.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 3, 2017
Most ODI runs in 2017:@imVkohli: 1,017@faf1307: 814@root66: 785
Who will reach 1,000 next? pic.twitter.com/ps9aawUaFx
— ICC (@ICC) September 3, 2017
Who said lightning doesn't strike twice? Today it did for the 100th time! Well done, @msdhoni! Keep them coming 🙂 ⚡ pic.twitter.com/HteDcKPWBi
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) September 3, 2017
Another unbeaten century in a run-chase. Suspect it is part of Kohli's diet!
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) September 3, 2017
Excellent spells by Bumrah throughout the ODI series helped him to grab the Man Of The Series honour. #Bumrah #IndvsSL @Jaspritbumrah93
— Rana Arjunsingh Gour 🇮🇳🕉🚩 (@ranagour) September 3, 2017
So @msdhoni & #TeamIndia remained unbeaten in #Slvsind series. Congratulations @imVkohli & co. 4 d stunning 5-0 victory. #IndvsSL #Dhoni100
— HalfAccountant (@ReianSpeaks) September 3, 2017
https://twitter.com/raj_t_raj/status/904398116467630080
https://twitter.com/bikash86/status/904398015565357056
