A superlative century from Shikhar Dhawan helped India beat Sri Lanka in the third and final ODI by eight wickets with the hosts sealing the series 2-1 here on Sunday.
Chasing 216, India hunted down the target in just 32.1 overs with Dhawan remaining unbeaten on 100 - his 12th century in ODIs.
Indian spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal Spinners shared three wickets each for India as Sri Lanka squandered a blistering start provided by Tharanga (95 off 82). Sri Lanka collapsed to 215 all out from a promising 160 for two.
In reply, India lost captain Rohit Sharma in the fourth over with Akila Dananjaya slipping in a beautiful googly to clean him up on 7. Shreyas Iyer then joined Dhawan in the middle and together they steered the Indian chase. The two added 145 runs between them before Shreyas (65) was out after scoring his second consecutive half-century.
Dhawan though continued as he struck 14 fours and two sixes to reach three figures and also became the sixth fastest batsman to score 4000 runs in ODIs. He was well supported by Dinesh Karthik who remained unbeaten on 26 off 31.
The wicket offered decent turn for the spinners but Sri Lanka failed to apply themselves, losing the last five wickets in the space of 18 runs and the last eight for 55 runs.
Times of India
