It was yet another effortless performance from the Men in Blue against the visiting neighbours in the third one-day match in Hyderabad. Coming into the match with a 2-0 lead in the series, India needed one more win to seal the series and the players had done just that.
Batting first Sri Lanka put up a meagre total of 242 as they failed to play their full quota of 50 overs. Mahela Jayawardene scored a brilliant century before eventually getting out on 118. But there was no support from the other end whatsoever. Dilshan managed a half century but could not keep on the good show as he got out on 53. Umesh Yadav turned out to be the star performer for India with the ball in hand as his match figures turned out to be 53/4 in his full quota of 10 overs.
India made a solid start as the openers had put up another 50-run partnership before the fall of Ajinkya Rahane (31) on the score of 62. Shikhar Dhawan carried on his good run with one more 91-run innings. He 
missed his century narrowly but it’s a relief to see him back in form. Virat Kohli also scored a half-century but yet again got out frustratingly with India needing only 7 runs to win. Kohli scored 53 and while on 48 reached the milestone of scoring 6000 runs in one-day cricket. He now holds the record of fastest player on the planet to reach the landmark getting better of Vivian Richards. Viv did it in 141 innings while Kohli took 5 innings fewer than that. In the end India reached the target with 41 balls remaining to be bowled with 6 wickets to spare.
Over all it was a clinical performance from the Indians as they now travel to Kolkata for the 4th one-dayer. India will look forward to make it 4-0 there while the Sri Lankans really need to put a spirited show to prevent a clean sweep for India.
Tags: India vs Sri Lanka Virat Kohli
