Suryakumar Yadav’s sublime century – his third in only 43 T20I innings – set up a series win for India against Sri Lanka after winning the 3rd match of the series by 91 runs.
Batting first in the decider, India scored 228 out of which Suryakumar hit 112 off just 51 balls. It was an innings full of trademark Suryakumar shots: inside-out drives over extra cover, ramps over short fine leg and wrists used to manufacture shots over square leg and point. India were helped along by a blazing start from Rahul Tripathi and a finishing kick from Axar Patel.
Sri Lanka kept getting boundaries in response but the asking rate was too high, and they kept losing wickets too often to seriously challenge the hosts.
Once Shivam Mavi and Axar interrupted a quick start from Sri Lanka, the small margin for error kept creating more shots that weren’t quite on.
The win took India’s unbeaten streak in T20I bilaterals at home to 11 series. Only one of these series was drawn.
India 228 for 5 (Suryakumar 112*, Gill 46, Madushanka 2-55)
Sri Lanka 137 (Mendis 23, Arshdeep 3-20, Hardik 2-30)
