Ashwin bowls India to T20I series victory

VISAKHAPATNAM, India: Ravichandran Ashwin bowled superbly to guide India to their first bilateral T20I series win at home when they crushed Sri Lanka by nine wickets in the series decider here on Sunday.

India bowled Sri Lanka out for their lowest total, 82, to retain their number one ranking. Ashwin’s 4 for 8 was the best figures for an Indian in T20Is, beating his own 4 for 11.

 Niroshan Dickwella left his crease early and walked past an offbreak that Ashwin bowled deliberately short. In the same over, Tillakaratne Dilshan was done in by a sharp offbreak from round the wicket.

Captain Dinesh Chandimal skied Ashwin in his second over. In his third over, Ashwin enjoyed some luck as debutant Asela Gunaratne was given out caught at leg slip off his pad.

Ashwin had now reduced Sri Lanka to 20 for 4 in the fifth over. Milinda Siriwardana pulled Jasprit Bumrah for four, but when he tried the pull second ball he chose a Nehra delivery that was not short enough and also skidded through to bowl him.

Jadeja and Raina kept the pressure up and the wickets kept falling.

India walked away to their target with 37 balls remaining. Shikhar Dhawan scored run-a-ball 46. Ashwin was named man of the match and man of the series

Score Board

India won toss

Sri Lanka

†N Dickwella st Dhoni b Ashwin       1

T M Dilshan lbw b Ashwin     1

*L D Chandimal c Pandya b Ashwin  8

D A S Gunaratne c Raina b Ashwin  4

T A M Siriwardana b Nehra   4

M D Shanaka b Jadeja         19

S Prasanna run out   9

N L T C Perera c Jadeja b Raina      12

S M S M Senanayake c Dhoni b Raina        8

P V D Chameera not out      9

C R D Fernando b Bumrah   1

Extras (lb 2, w 3, nb 1)       6

Total (all out; 18 overs)       82

Fall: 1-2, 2-3, 3-12, 4-20, 5-21, 6-48, 7-54, 8-72, 9-73, 10-82

Bowling: Ashwin 4-1-8-4; Nehra 2-0-17-1 (1w); Bumrah 3-0-10-1; Jadeja 4-1-11-1 (1w); Yuvraj 1-0-15-0 (1nb); Pandya 2-0-13-0 (1w); Raina 2-0-6-2

India

R G Sharma lbw b Chameera         13

S Dhawan not out     46

A M Rahane not out   22

Extras (lb 3)   3

Total (1 wicket; 13.5 overs) 84

Did not bat: S K Raina, Yuvraj Singh, *†M S Dhoni, H H Pandya, R A Jadeja, R Ashwin, J J Bumrah, A Nehra

Fall: 1-29

Bowling: Senanayake 4-0-22-0; Fernando 2-0-7-0; Chameera 2-0-14-1; Prasanna 1-0-3-0; Siriwardana 1-0-9-0; Gunaratne 2.5-0-22-0; Dilshan 1-0-4-0

Result: India won by 9 wickets

Series: India won the 3-match series by 2-1

T20I debut: D A S Gunaratne (Sri Lanka)

Man of the Match: R Ashwin (India)

Man of the Series: R Ashwin (India)

Umpires: A K Chaudhary and C K Nandan. TV umpire: V A Kulkarni. Match referee: J J Crowe (New Zealand)