Pallekele: Rohit Sharma (124 n o, 145b, 16×4, 2×6) once again showed his class with a stylish unbeaten century as India took an unassailable 3-0 lead with a six-wicket victory in the third ODI, which was marred by unruly crowd behaviour.
Sensing another meek surrender from the home team, the crowd went berserk as they started throwing water bottles at the end of the 44th over, forcing a 35-minute stoppage.
Rohit who struck his 12th ODI ton, was well-assisted by former skipper MS Dhoni (67 n o, 86b, 4×4, 1×6), who again played the second fiddle to perfection in an unbroken 157-run stand with India reaching the victory target of 218 in 45.1 overs. Akila Dananjaya (2/38) bowled well for the hosts.
It was the seventh successive bilateral series victory against Sri Lanka. India last lost an ODI series to island nation in 1997.
India’s batting depth came to the fore for the second successive time after Shikhar Dhawan (5), skipper Virat Kohli (3), KL Rahul (17) and Kedar Jadhav (0) were back in the pavilion.
Earlier, pacer Jasprit Bumrah (5/27) took his maiden five-wicket haul, enabling India restrict Sri Lanka to 217 for nine after Kohli lost the toss for the first time.
Sri Lanka, trailing 0-2 in the series, once again put up an ordinary show with the bat, barring a gritty half century by Lahiru Thirimanne (80, 105b, 5×4, 1×6).His 72-run stand for the third wicket alongside Dinesh Chandimal (36, 71b, 4×4) was the lone bright spot in the innings after stand-in captain Chamara Kapugedera opted to bat.
Opener Niroshan Dickwella survived an LBW via DRS in the fourth over, but four balls later Bumrah got him in the same manner, LBW via DRS again.
With 28/2 on board, Chandimal and Thirimanne calmed things down and put on a solid partnership. After Chandimal’s dismissal, Thirimanne put on 38 runs for the fourth wicket with Angelo Mathews (11).
After Bumrah grabbed the vital wicket of well-set Thirimanne, Sri Lanka the lower order failed to kick on once again.
Crowd trouble
Pallekele: Crowd trouble forced the umpires to stop play for about 35 minutes when India were cruising to a series clinching victory in the third ODI here, Sunday. India were 210 for four after 44 overs, needing another eight runs to win, when players were sent back into the dressing room, following the rowdy behaviour from Sri Lankan supporters, who resorted to throwing bottles into the field of play. Security forces were called to clear the spectators from some of the sections in the gallery before the match resumed.
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