Unadkat, Pandey shine as India complete 3-0 sweep
Sri Lanka competed hard on a bouncy Wankhede Stadium deck, but India pulled ahead at the crucial moments to wrap up a five-wicket win
Sri Lanka competed hard on a bouncy Wankhede Stadium deck, but India pulled ahead at the crucial moments to wrap up a five-wicket win
Scorer: Chandan Duorah | Commentator: Varun Shetty
10:59pm A long, long presentation to finish of a long home season for India. One they've utterly dominated, and one that has seen them grow into a larger squad with quite some depth. On paper, it is a formidable team. One that is doubly impressive because it has been put together so far ahead of the 2019 World Cup. A new challenge awaits them in about two weeks time. We will bring that to you, of course. Thanks for joining us. Have a merry Christmas.
Rohit Sharma: 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.
Unadkat: 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.
Jaydev Unadkat is the Man of the Match and the Man of the Series.
Thisara Perera: 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.
Ravi Shastri: We respect oppositions and when you do that you stay grounded. The intent was there from everyone which was nice to see. [Unadkat] very very good. He's been around for 5-6 years. He understands his bowling. There's so much of cricket being played. and T20 for us - we don't care. We use it to give chances to youngsters. KL Rahul is a class player. A big headache for us. He's the most improved player in world cricket in the last 18 months. It's a good side, and it's a side that can compete anywhere in the world.
Manish Pandey: It was nice to see MS and Dinesh finish it in style. I though we batted fairly alright but the wicket was doing a bit. It should have got over a littler earlier than it did.
Dinesh Karthik: Under pressure a little bit. I think it was important with Dhoni around to take it as deep as possible. I though 12 off the last over was gettable, but I got one in the slot. It would have been a great day one Test wicket, there was bounce and movement. It's great to play T20 on these kinds of pitches where 150 is a winning score. I enjoy these kind of pitches. I think we dominated and were on point, except the first ODI in Dharamshala.
10:27pm India finish their home season with a clean sweep. No Christmas miracle for Sri Lanka, but they ran India very close. Not a lot of fluidity from India's batsmen today, certainly nowhere near the first two matches. A lot of that was down to Sri Lanka's bowlers, who plugged away on a pitch that finally gave them assistance. But they didn't have enough runs on the board. 136 was never going to scare India, even if it did make them shudder. Not the kind of clinical finish they'd have liked, but it's a big win nonetheless.
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Sri Lanka competed hard on a bouncy Wankhede Stadium deck, but India pulled ahead at the crucial moments to wrap up a five-wicket win
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