2nd T20I: Ton-up Rohit Sharma, spinners help India crush Sri Lanka by 88 runs; claim series

Indore, Dec 22: India skipper Rohit Sharma's superb century followed by a brilliant display of spin bowling from Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal propelled India to a series winning 88-run victory over Sri Lanka in the second T20 International match here on Friday (December 22).

Match Scorecard; Series results

India first set up a mammoth target of 260/5, the joint-second biggest T20I total on a good batting surface, in the stipulated 20 overs and then restricted the visitors to 172 with 16 balls to spare.

India..ranking
#1 in Tests
#2 in ODIs & T20Is#IndvSL

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) December 22, 2017

With this win, the Men In Blue took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series against a listless Sri Lankan side as nothing is going their way. The series win against Sri Lanka has now taken Team India to the second spot in ICC T20I rankings. The Men In Blue are ranked second in the ODIs while seated at the top in ICC Test rankings.

It was a scintillating batting effort from Rohit as he became the only Indian batsman to slam two centuries in T20Is. Rohit's top class innings and record 165-run opening partnership with Lokesh Rahul set the tone for the hosts and laid the foundation of a huge total.

Rohit's innings today:
0 0 4 0 4 0 / 1 / 1 / 6 0 1 / 4 0 4 6 1 / 1 4 1 / 4 4 1 / 6 6 4 4 / 1 1 4/ 0 6 6 6 6 / 4 0 0 0 1 / 6 4 6 w

118 runs off 43 balls
10 sixes
12 fours
10 singles
11 dots#INDvSL #INDvsSL #SLvIND

— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) December 22, 2017

Rahul (89 off 49 deliveries) fell just 11 short of his second T20I hundred, in what could have been the second ton from the side. Rohit slammed the joint-fastest Twenty20 international century off just 35 deliveries to make a mockery of a clueless Sri Lankan bowling attack.

Most sixes in a team innings in T20Is:
21 WI v Ind (Lauderhill, 2016)
21 IND v SL (INDORE, Today)
19 Net v Ire (Sylhet, 2014)#INDvSL #SLvIND

— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) December 22, 2017

Rohit 35-ball century is joint-fastest with South Africa's David Miller. Miller notched up his record ton against Bangladesh, earlier this year.

Most sixes in int'l cricket in a year:
64 ROHIT SHARMA (2017)
63 AB de Villiers (2015)
59 Chris Gayle (2012)
57 Shane Watson (2011)
56 Shahid Afridi (2005)#INDvSL #INDvsSL #SLvIND

— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) December 22, 2017

Rohit - the Hitman - departed after playing an incredible 43-ball 118 run knock. His memorable innings was studded with 12 fours and 10 mammoth sixes. His first fifty runs came from 23 deliveries but the right-hander reached his second fifty runs in next 12 deliveries as the crowd at Holkar Stadium kept asking for more.

Veteran batsman MS Dhoni was promoted up in the batting order after Rohit's dismissal. Dhoni along with Rahul put up 78-run-stand for the second wicket.

Continuing his good form with the bat, Rahul slammed his second consecutive T20 half-century. His knock was studded with 5 fours and 8 sixes.

RoHit Sharma ! Mazaak bana rakha hai yaar. It ain't this easy yaar. pic.twitter.com/GqoGhz18wK

— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) December 22, 2017

Dhoni scored 28 runs off 21 deliveries and perished in the last over of the innings while trying to clear the fence but the ball breached his defence. The hosts lost two more wickets in Shreyas Iyer (0) and Hardik Pandya (10 off 3) in their innings.

In response, Kusal Perera (77 off 37) and Upul Tharanga (47 off 29) set up a remarkable run chase for the visitors as they reciprocated with the same intensity. But the spin twins of Kuldeep Yadav (3/52) and Yuzvendra Chahal (4/52) came back strongly to share 7 wickets between them despite leaking 104 runs from their quota of 8 overs.

Indian spinners
at Cuttack 8-0-41-6
at Indore 8-0-104-7#IndvSL

— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) December 22, 2017

It was a turn around bowling effort from the spinners after getting hammered all around the park but the cushion of 260 on the board never let them get disheartened and stick to their plan to eventually bundle the visitors out.

Perera and Tharanga set up the chase nicely after speedster Jaydev Unadkat got rid of the opener Niroshan Dickwella (25) cheaply. The duo put up a 111-run stand for the second wicket and literally brought the Indians under pressure and made the crowd become silent.

But once Chahal broke the century-plus stand in the 14th over, Indians never looked back. The Sri Lankan batting collapsed immediately after Tharanga's departure after Chahal caught him on his own ball.

With his 4-wicket burst today, @yuzi_chahal equals Ajantha Mendis' record for most wickets after 14 T20I appearances - both players with 26 scalps. #INDvSL @TheQuint

— Arun Gopalakrishnan (@statanalyst) December 22, 2017

Kuldeep then cleaned up Thisara Perera (1), Kusal Perera (77) on successive deliveries to bring the game once again under their control. He got Asela Gunaratne stumped for nought in the same over to script another batting collapse for the visitors.

Chahal, then, bamboozled Chaturanga de Silva for 1, Sadeera Samarawickrama (1) stumped off a wide delivery and Akila Dananjaya (5) caught in the deep in his final over. Hardik Pandya cleaned up Dushmantha Chameera for 3 to put the final nail in the coffin and handover India another big win.

The two teams will now head to Mumbai for the final match on Sunday (December 24).