Kandy: India kicked off their white-ball tour against Sri Lanka with a T20I at the Pallekele International stadium. This was the first match of the 3-match T20I series. The hosts won the toss and invited the Men in Blue to bat first.
Openers, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill gave India a very strong start and took the full advantage of the powerplay. Both were looking in great touch, however Gill unexpectedly lost his wicket on the final ball of the powerplay. On the very next ball, Jaiswal also lost his wicket leaving India at 74/2. The Men in Blue were looking in quite a strong position but now they suddenly had 2 new batters on the crease.
The next 2 batters, Suryakumar Yadav and Rishabh Pant also formed a brilliant stand. Surya, who was recently made India’s T20I captain showed why he deserved that position with a fantastic knock. The batter smashed a half-century in just 22 balls which was the second-fastest half-century of his career. However, Surya wasn’t able to continue his innings for much longer as he was dismissed on 58 by Matheesha Pathirana in the 14th over.
After the fall of Surya, Pant who was playing slow before, started playing with his fearless approach. His impressive knock of 49 took India to a mammoth total of 213/7 after 20 overs, setting up a target of 214 for the hosts. Pathirana was the best bowler for the hosts with his impressive figures of 4/40 in 4 overs.
In reply, Sri Lanka also started well as openers Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis smashed the Indian bowlers during the powerplay. Both the batters were playing amazing shots and were hurting the Indian bowlers quite a lot. In the 9th over, Arshdeep Singh managed to get the huge wicket of Mendis to break the 84-run opening stand.
Even after the fall of Mendis’ wicket, Nissanka continued with his hard-hitting approach. He looked set for a century, however Axar Patel came in between and cleaned him up at 79. Sri Lanka were still in quite a good position after Nissanka’s wicket fell as they were 140/2 after 14.1 overs. They needed 74 runs in 35 balls which may be a little difficult but was still a really gettable target. However, from that point on, the Sri Lankan batting order started falling like a house of cards.
The middle-order as well as the lower-order had no answer to the Indian bowlers as the wickets didn’t stop tumbling. Also, Riyan Parag turned out to be an unlikely hero for the Men in Blue in the bowling department with his amazing bowling figures of 3/5 in 1.2 overs. The hosts went on to lose 9 wickets in the span of just 30 runs and were bowled out for 170 runs in 19.2 overs. Alongside Parag, Arshdeep and Axar also took 2 wickets each as India started the new era under coach Gautam Gambhir with a comprehensive 43-run victory to take a 1-0 lead in the T20I series.
The player-of-the-match award was given to none other than Indian captain, Suryakumar Yadav for his knock of 58. The second match of the T20I series will be played tomorrow at the same venue.
