Mumbai: India survived some anxious moments before completing a clean sweep of Sri Lanka in the third and final Twenty20 international at the Wankhede Stadium here on Sunday.
After restricting Sri Lanka to 135 for seven, the hosts managed to reach the target with four balls to spare.
Former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (16 not out) and Dinesh Karthik (18 not out) guided India home with a crucial unbroken 31 runs for the sixth wicket. However, useful contributions came from Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey as both could not capitalise on the start to be dismissed in their 30s.
Earlier, Asela Gunaratne (36 off 37 balls) and Dasun Shanaka (29 not out off 24) were the main contributors for the struggling visitors, who lost the first two T20Is in Cuttack and Indore.
Put in to bat by Rohit Sharma, Sri Lanka failed to click with their batting again. Both openers Niroshan Dickwella (1) and Upul Thranga (11) fell to left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat (2/15). While left-hander Dickwella was caught by Mohammad Siraj at mid-on, Tharanga played one to the hands of Hardik Pandya at deep midwicket, leaving his side at 18/3 in 3.3 overs.
In between these two wickets, debutant off-spinner Washington Sundar got Kusal Perera’s catch of his own bowling as Sri Lanka struggled.
Gunaratne (36 off 37) and Sadeera Samarawickrama (21) seemed to be building a strong partnership until the latter mistimed Pandya and Dinesh Karthik caught it at mid-off, with Sri Lanka at 56/4 in 8.3 overs.
The Sri Lankan batting line-up showed no sign of resilience and Danushka Gunathilaka (3) and Thisara Perera (11) lost their wickets to left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav and pacer Siraj respectively.
Gunaratne and Shanaka tried their best but struggled to score briskly. Gunaratne was the next one to be dismissed, pulling Pandya to the hands of Kuldeep at midwicket.
