TIL Desk Sports/ Rohit Sharma once again showed his class in the limited overs format with a stylish unbeaten 124 as India took an unassailable 3-0 lead with a six-wicket victory in the third ODI, which was marred by unruly crowd behaviour, in Pallekele, on Sunday.
Sensing another meek surrender from the home team, the crowd went berserk as they started throwing water bottles at the end of the 44th over, forcing a 35-minute stoppage before India completed an easy victory.
Rohit was assisted by former skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who hit a composed 67 not out, content to play the second fiddle to perfection in an unbroken 157-run stand with India reaching the victory target of 218 in 45.1 overs. It was the seventh successive bilateral series victory against Sri Lanka.
India last lost a ODI series to island nation in 1997. India’s batting depth came to the fore for the second successive time after form-man Shikhar Dhawan (5), skipper Virat Kohli (3), KL Rahul (17) and Kedar Jadhav (0) were back in the pavilion. Dhoni’s 65th ODI half-century effort saw him face 86 balls, hitting four boundaries and a six off left-arm spinner Milinda Siriwardana.
