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Prior to the first One-Day International of the series, Rohit Sharma had a personal score to settle in Sri Lanka following a string of low scores in the island nation. The barren run continued with the star batsman scoring only 4 in the opening ODI. While he came back strong in the next game with a valuable half-century, Rohit stood tall when it mattered the most with a well-constructed century (124*) in the third ODI on Sunday(August 27) to seal the series in India's favour.
With Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli falling very early in a modest chase of 218, Rohit took the mantle to keep the scoreboard ticking. KL Rahul, who looked very tentative throughout his stay, perished after a mini recovery. Chamara Kapugedera, the captain for the night, introduced Akila Dananjaya into the attack in hope of a wicket and the spinner didn't disappoint. After almost bowling his side to a win in the previous game, Dananjaya confused Rahul with his variations and in a bid to break the shackles, the batsman pulled a shortish delivery straight into the hands of the deep midwicket fielder. In his very next over, he struck again with Kedar Jadhav playing a ugly sweep without reading the delivery. He missed the leg spinner and was trapped plumb in front.
Tottering at 61 for 4, India needed the calm head of MS Dhoni to anchor the chase alongside Rohit. The duo did exactly the same to soothe the nerves in the dressing room. After a couple of quiet overs, Rohit unleashed himself on Dushmantha Chameera with a hat-trick of boundaries that also brought up his half-century. With Dhoni taking his time to settle down, Rohit continued to play some gorgeous shots on either side of the wicket. At the halfway mark, India were 113 for 4 with Rohit making 76 of them.
Dhoni finally found the fence for the first time in the innings with a pull off his old nemesis Malinga. But it was all about Rohit at the other end as the Mumbai batsman blazed into the nineties with a six off Dananjaya. He brought up his ton with a single towards third man and then celebrated in style with a six off the very next ball delivery.
Dhoni then got into the act by bringing up his half-century and Sri Lanka's day only got worse with the crowd beginning to vent their frustrations. With just eight runs needed for victory, the Pallekele crowd raised its ugly head with a section of the crowd raining down bottles onto the field of play. This prompted the officials to halt the game. Players headed back into the pavilion and waited for security forces to evacuate a section of the grass banks before coming out to complete the formalities.
Rohit's century notwithstanding, the foundations of the win were laid by Jasprit Bumrah, who picked up his maiden five-wicket haul in international cricket. Kapugedera surprised one and all by opting to bat first despite losing the first two games with India batting second. Sri Lanka had brought back Lahiru Thirimanne and Dinesh Chandimal into the playing XI whereas India, as expected, went in unchanged.
Bumrah bowled exceptionally well with the new ball, finding plenty of movement. He was rewarded with Niroshan Dickwella's wicket as the left-hander, who after surviving a leg-before-wicket decision, fell to a similar full-length delivery just three balls later. This time, India had to take the review in order to overturn the umpire's decision. Kusal Mendis was the next to go with the batsman edging one behind to Rohit, who took an excellent one-handed catch diving to his right.
The dismissal brought the comeback men together and the pair did a decent job with a 72-run stand to revive the innings. But with Sri Lanka failing to find the impetus, India were still in control of the game. Chandimal, who was hit by Hardik Pandya on the thumb earlier in his innings, found the fielder at deep square leg with a flick. Later on, it was revealed that he would play no further part in the series with a hairline fracture.
With Angelo Mathews also failing to fire, the onus was on Thirimanne to anchor the innings. He slowly shifted gears after going past fifty but with 20 runs short of his century, Thirimanne chipped one tamely to the midwicket fielder at a crucial juncture in the innings. India took advantage of the situation and choked Sri Lanka as Bumrah came back to shatter the stumps of Dananjaya and Milinda Siriwardana to complete his five-wicket haul.
Brief scores: Sri Lanka 217/9 in 50 overs (Lahiru Thirimanne 80, Dinesh Chandimal 36; Jasprit Bumrah 5-27) lost to India 218/4 in 45.1 overs (Rohit Sharma 124 , MS Dhoni 67 ; Akila Dhananjaya 2-38) by six wickets.
(CRICBUZZ)
