It was the perfect series for the Indian Cricket Team, with the usual suspects dishing out terrific performances and the new breed of players coming through to put up a good show in home conditions.
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Rohit Sharma had the perfect start to his captaincy career, leading from the front, scoring a sumptuous hundred in the second T20 to equal David Miller’s record for the fastest ever T20 International hundred, and then going onto accomplish his first ever T20 series whitewash.
The third T20 welcomed back Sri Lanka and India to the Wankhede, 6 years after that 2011 World Cup final, when MS Dhoni took India to that elusive World Cup win.
Last night the Wankhede crowd was expectant, as it wanted Dhoni to finish it off in style once again. And Dhoni obliged once again, scoring the winning boundary to complete India’s emphatic whitewash against Sri Lanka.
Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni were put in quite the quandary by the top order, playing some reckless cricket to put a lot of pressure on the lower order, but India wouldn’t necessarily mind that, as the lower order got a much needed hit in a pressure situation.
Karthik and Pandey both complimented Dhoni’s calmness in the dying stages of the game, something that helped both of them play well in those crunch situations.
Pandey: “It was nice to see MS and Dinesh Karthik finishing it off in style. It (new ball) was moving around initially in the second innings .We batted fairly alright; it should have gotten over a bit earlier, but they bowled really well. I like to play my shots. Wickets with bounce and pace gives me the chance to hit the ball well.”
Karthik: “Under pressure a little bit, I think it was important with Dhoni around to take the game deep. I thought 12 off the last over was gettable, but I got one in the slot in the end, I backed myself and connected well. It would’ve been a great Day 1 pitch in Test cricket; there was bounce and movement. It’s great to play games in these kind of wickets. There’s a bit of cat and mouse game. You got to decide when you have to go against the bowlers. I enjoy these kind of wickets.”
