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India
Cricket 

India whitewash Sri Lanka

Team MVR

Making full use of the opportunities, Shreyas Iyer was breathing down Suryakumar Yadav’s neck as India completed a clean sweep with consummate ease, beating Sri Lanka by six wickets in the third and final T20 International in Dharamsala on Sunday.

The Indian team’s last three T20I home series against New Zealand, West Indies and now Sri Lanka have ended in identical 3-0 margins.

Chasing a target of 147, it was like a walk in the park for Shreyas, who smashed 73 not out off 45 balls to complete the chase in 16.5 overs after Avesh Khan and Mohammed Siraj enjoyed a brilliant run in the powerplay overs.

Shreyas, whose game against the short ball was once found to be suspect, had a rubber to remember with a hat-trick of half-centuries, an aggregate of 200 runs that fetched him the Player-of-the-Series Award.

Come to think of it, Shreyas is fighting for one elusive middle-order spot with Suryakumar, who was the Player of the Series against the West Indies before sustaining a hairline fracture on his right hand.

Not only in the third match but throughout the series what was evident was that Shreyas was in control of the pull shots which he had been made to practice for hours in the nets.

He is getting in line to keep the pulls down and now presents a happy headache for skipper Rohit Sharma, who became the most capped player in T20 Internationals with 125 games, one more than Pakistan’s ageless wonder, Shoaib Malik.