Virat Kohli stood tall again as he led India to a historic sweep of all three formats after the visitors pummelled Sri Lanka by seven wickets in the one-off T20 international here at the R Premadasa Stadium on Wednesday.

Chasing Sri Lanka’s competitive 170 for seven, which the hosts stacked up on the back of Dilshan Munaweera’s punishing 53 (29b, 5x4, 4x6) after being put into bat, India coasted to 174 for three in 19.2 overs to cap off their whitewashes in Tests (3-0) and one-day internationals (5-0).

Looking a little jittery at 42 for the loss of both the openers – Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul – India found their saviour in Kohli (82, 54b, 7x4, 1x6) who was ably supported by Manish Pandey (51 n.o., 36b, 4x4, 1x6). This was Kohli’s fourth 80-plus score in this limited-overs series after innings of 82 n.o. (first ODI), 131 and 110 n.o. (fourth and fifth ODIs).

Team-mates from their India under-19 days, Kohli and Pandey didn’t take too many risks at the start of their 119-run (78b) partnership. They focused on rotating the strike, picking an odd boundary or two. With the required run-rate peaking at a little over nine, Kohli decided step on the gas.

The first of those big shots came off leggie Seekkuge Prasanna whom the Indian skipper deposited into the stands with effortless ease. That was perhaps the ice-breaker and he followed it up with a series of exquisitely-timed fours on either side of the park.

Pandey too joined the party, slamming Angelo Mathews for a six and a four off consecutive balls as India rapidly marched towards victory.

This is only the second such instance where a team has swept their opponents in all three formats in a single series. Before India achieved this 9-0 victory across Tests, ODIs and T20I, only Australia had accomplished such a feat in 2009-10 series against Pakistan at home.

Munaweera, the diminutive right-hander, had appeared as clueless as a rabbit in front of a headlight in the last two ODIs he batted in place of the injured Danushka Gunathilaka, managing scores of 11 and four. On Wednesday, though, he was a transformed man. Manufacturing sixes and fours at will, which brought back memories of his more illustrious compatriot Dilshan Tillakaratne, Munaweera set the stadium afire with his maiden T20I half-century.

Niroshan Dickwella gave a rousing start, scooping Jasprit Bumrah for three consecutive fours in the second over but failed to kick-on from there. Munaweera wasn’t in a mood to throw it away.

The right-hander was particularly severe against Yuzvendra Chahal, slamming the leg-spinner for all the four sixes he hit. The 26-year-old had the sizable crowd eating out of his hands with an aggressive approach, driving the first ball he faced to the fence. His entertaining knock came to a clumsy end when he slogged hard at a Kuldeep Yadav (2/20) delivery only to lose his bat that flew to backward square leg and the ball knocked the off-stump back.

There were no other significant knocks from the top-order apart from Ashan Priyanjan (40 n.o., 1x4, 2x6), a late replacement for the injured Malinda Siriwardana. The off-spinning all-rounder wasn’t as robust as Munaweera but he stood firm at one end to stem Lanka’s rapid meltdown. Even as Lankan batsmen scored at a fast clip, they kept losing wickets also. India appeared to have pulled things back after reducing them to 134 for seven in 16.4 overs but Priyanjan and Isuru Udana (19 off 10, 2x4, 1x6) finished innings with a flourish. But there was no stopping India.

DH News Service

India complete Lankan conquest