India vs Sri Lanka 3rd T20I, 2017- Who Said What

While 135 didn’t look like a probing total at the start of the chase, Sri Lanka did manage to spice the competition up and had the Indian fans at the edge of their seat. It proved to be a low scoring thriller at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. In the end, the fans got what they’d come to see as MS Dhoni hit the winning boundary and Team India won the game with 5 wickets in hand.

The bowlers had set the game up nicely for the Men in Blue as they never quite let the batsmen off the hook. Though Mohammed Siraj had an off day, his second in as many T20Is for India the bowlers did a really good job to keep them down to an under par total. Siraj after spending 53 against New Zealand for a wicket gave away 45 runs here.

During the chase, India had a good start with Rohit Sharma striking a few but KL Rahul couldn’t make it count the third time. Rohit also departed after scoring 27 and then Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey got together to stabilize the innings. They scored a couple of thirties and then handed the job to Dinesh Kartik and Dhoni who kept their cool and got over the line at ease in the end.

In the post-match presentation, Rohit Sharma lifted the trophy in his first series leading the Indian side. He was proud of the way the youngsters performed and was pleased with the overall effort.

Rohit said:

“We were playing with seven batters, plus Washington is a good batsman as well so we backed ourselves to go and get it. It’s something we discussed at the start of the tour as well, that we want to play with six batsmen and an allrounder.

Very happy with the way be played in the ODI and T20 series. I think it’s a team effort. The work ethic of each and every guy. They’ve done their homework thoroughly. It showed they were ready for the opportunity.

Lot of the guys were playing their first or second game but it didn’t feel like that. It was our job as the team management to back them completely. Looking forward to he SA tour. It’s going to be a different challenge. But I want to reiterate about our home season – it’s never easy to beat anyone. We were challenged at different times and we came back.”

Jaydev Unadkat was awarded the Man of the Match as well as the Man of the Series, he said:

“Things went really well for me. I had some plans and I had my preparations before the series. To bowl in the Powerplay was something I was looking forward to do. It’s been long [since debut] I’ve been through the domestic circuit and played a lot there. That really helped mature as a player. Having played so early gave me a boost.

I’m thankful to the management for backing me. The most important phase for any cricketer is the domestic ciurcuit where you bowl on the flat tracks in this country; and you keep going through the grind. To come out well really gives you the confidence. I was always eager to do well for the nation to come and give my best whenever I got a chance with these guys.”

Sri Lankan captain Thisara Perera said:

“As a captain I’m really proud of the bowling unit for defending 130 like this. I’m proud of my team mates. We’ve always had a good fielding coach and that’s we’ve really improved out fielding as well. We have learnt lots on this tour. We all know India is a big team at the moment. We’ve learnt a lot of things and we have to continue our performance. Our batting has to click and I think we will go a long way.”