Surya scores a 45-ball century as India wins the T20 series against Sri Lanka.

After two strong performances, Sri Lanka was in with a chance to hand India its first home defeat in 12 bilateral series. They were up against a team that included the world's most dangerous T20 batter.

Suryakumar Yadav appeared in a No. 1 jersey and proceeded to play from his genius notebook. He quickly extinguished Sri Lanka's hopes, allowing India to win the series 2-1 with a 91-run victory in the final T20 game.

Yadav blazed to his third T20I century in six months, leaving white streaks in the Rajkot sky. Nottingham, Mount Maunganui, and now Rajkot are all options. It's unusual to score 112* off 51 balls (S/R 219.6 — 7x4, 9x6), but the Mumbai batsman has been in such excellent form that he completed his previous two centuries with even higher strike rates. His 100 points came from 45 balls.

Yadav's performance in T20 cricket is reminiscent of AB de Villiers. After Hardik Pandya elected to bat, he came in to bat in the sixth over and quickly began finding the boundaries.

However, Yadav's first boundary, hit behind the wicket, came in the 11th over. He hit several sixes in the fine-leg region after hitting one. By taking the conventional route, he could bat with the same amount of freedom, even if he wasn't thinking 360 degrees.

At the 10-over mark, India were 92/2. In the last 10 they scored 146 runs, most of them through Yadav’s wristy strokes and angular blade. If his first ramp was daring as they come, the next one against Dilshan Madushanka’s left-arm pace in the 13th over was more frenetic – picked up from outside off-stump, head out of the way, up and over short fine-leg, a falling ramp if you like.

Madushanka had lost his rhythm by this point, and his length ball was deposited for a maximum over deep midwicket.

Yadav used his feet to hit back-to-back sixes over extra cover in the next over of Maheesh Theekshana's spin. Every ball, Yadav was thinking boundary-first. He found them so frequently that the Sri Lankan bowlers completely lost the plot.

India scored 72 runs between overs 11 and 15. Yadav has a head start on the rest of the world in this area. He's easily the top boundary-scorer in the middle-overs over the last 12 months.

India were equally destructive in the death overs, riding on Yadav's blitz. He got to 100 in 45 balls with a single. Yadav was celebrating while acknowledging the crowd and his dugout, perhaps in disbelief at the heights he has been able to take his cricket to.

"A few shots are set in stone. But these are the shots I've been practising over the last year. So, nothing new," he said during the intermission.

Only Rohit Sharma has more T20I hundreds for India (4). Only Sharma has a faster hundred among Indians. Even Sharma, the white-ball colossus, would admit that the fear Yadav instils in the bowler's mind is something special.

SL batters surrender

With a huge total (228/5) to defend, India's bowlers were free to attack, which is unusual in this format on a batting-friendly surface. Arshdeep Singh (2.4-0-20-3) got his wicket-taking bouncer going after a forgettable outing in Pune, and Umran Malik (3-0-31-2) kept up his routine of disturbing the timber at least once in an innings.

Yuzvendra Chahal took two wickets, tying Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the most wickets in India (90). Sri Lanka capitulated for 137 runs in 16.4 overs, succumbing to continuous scoreboard pressure and relentless Indian bowling.

To cap a perfect day for India, their batters had their first aggressive powerplay with the bat, after consecutive top-order collapses. Most of the credit for that goes to Rahul Tripathi (35--16b), playing his first T20 series. He showed intent from the time he came out to bat after Ishan Kishan fell cheaply to another meek dismissal.