Numbers Game: High-flying India continue record-breaking run

India's winning streak of eight successive bilateral series is a new record for the Men in Blue. Check out the statistical highlights of the Visakhapatnam ODI.

Spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal picked up three wickets each to set up a comfortable eight-wicket win for India against Sri Lanka in the deciding third and final one-day international in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

The wrist-spinners scythed through the Sri Lankan batting order to bundle them out for 215 in under 45 overs after the touring side had made a blazing start.

The hosts, who won the three-test series between the sides 1-0, breezed to their target with almost 18 overs to spare to secure their eighth series victory in a row in the 50-over format.

Stand-in captain Rohit Sharma, filling in for the rested Virat Kohli, fell for seven to off-spinner Akila Dananjaya but Shikhar Dhawan remained unbeaten on 100 to guide India home.

Dhawan added 135 for the second wicket with Shreyas Iyer and an unbroken 70 with Dinesh Karthik, who finished on 26 not out.

Statistical highlights of the third and final ODI:

8 India's winning streak of eight successive bilateral series is a new record for the Men in Blue. After losing 4-1 to Australia in Australia at the start of the last year, India have won each of the eight bilateral series they have played. The world record is 14 consecutive bilateral series victories by West Indies between 1980 and 1988.

9 Out of ten bilateral series against Sri Lanka in India since 1982, India have won nine -- the remaining one ended in a draw.

36 India have played 51 ODIs vs Sri Lanka in India, winning 36 and losing 12 while the remaining three could not produce results -- win/loss ratio 3.000.

21 India have won 21 out of 29 ODIs contested (lost 7 and NR 1). India's win/loss ratio of 3.000 is their all-time best in a calendar year.

5 India's run-rate of 5.93 is their best ever in a calendar year in ODIs, eclipsing the 5.88 recorded in 2009.

12 Dhawan's unbeaten 100 off 85 balls is his 12th century in ODIs.

4 Dhawan has recorded four hundreds vs Sri Lanka - the most registered by him against a team.

10 In matches won by India, Dhawan averages 53.75 - his tally being 2903, including ten centuries and 17 fifties, in 58 matches.

95 Dhawan raced to 4,000 runs in just 95 innings. Only five players have taken fewer innings for this milestone -- South Africa's Hashim Amla (81), West Indian Vivian Richards (88), England's Joe Root (91), India's Virat Kohli (93) and Australia's David Warner (93).

5 Dhawan's feat of reaching 12 centuries in 95 innings is the fifth quickest in ODIs - the top four being Quinton de Kock (74 innings), Hashim Amla (81), Virat Kohli (83) and David Warner (90).

3 For the third time, Dhawan was adjudged the Player of the Series in ODIs.

2 Shreyas Iyer (65) has recorded his second fifty in ODIs -- the first being 88 in the second ODI at Mohali on December 13, 2017.

2 Kuldeep Yadav (3/42) has recorded his second best figures in ODIs behind the 3 for 41 vs West Indies at North Sound on June 30, 2017. He was deservingly named the Man of the Match for the first time in ODIs.

5 Sri Lanka have fared poorly this year in ODIs - just 5 wins out of 29 matches contested (lost 23 and NR 1). The win/loss ratio of 0.217 is the worst recorded by any team this year.

30 Danushka Gunathilaka has made just 30 runs at a poor average of 10.00 -- the least average recorded by him in an ODI series. His scores were 1 at Dharamsala, 16 at Mohali and 13 at Visakhapatnam. His previous worst performance in a series of three matches was against Bangladesh in Sri Lanka in 2016-17 -- 43 runs in three innings at an average of 14.33.

6 Upul Tharanga, who made 95, posted his sixth fifty vs India - his 36th in ODIs. Tharanga has totalled 1011 runs (ave.48.14) in 25 matches this year, including two hundreds and six fifties. He became the first Sri Lankan and the third batsman to aggregate 1,000 or more in a calendar year -- the first two being Virat Kohli (1460) and Rohit Sharma (1293).

42 Sadeera Samarawickrama, who hit 42, playing in his third innings, registered his highest score in ODIs. In his first two innings in this format vs Pakistan at Sharjah in October 2017, he had recorded ducks.

5 Gunathilaka and Tharanga shared a 121-run partnership -- Sri Lanka's fifth century stand for the second wicket vs India in India.