India v Sri Lanka, 2nd T20I: All-round India annihilate Sri Lanka by 69 runs to level series 1-1
After winning the first T20I in a convincing manner, Sri Lanka would have been hoping to seal the series and cause a major upset by beating India in India. India needed to come back strong with a message to show that the first T20I loss was only a glitch.
India went into the second T20I with an unchanged side while Sri Lanka brought experienced campaigner Tillakaratne Dilshan into the playing XI for Niroshan Dickwella. Captain, Dinesh Chandimal would have similar duties like his Indian counterpart, MS Dhoni – captaining the side and keeping wickets.
Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bowl first as Chandimal did not expect the wicket to change much during the course of the game. Dhoni was looking for a good statement from his players at his home ground in Ranchi.
The Indian openers got the home side off to a flying start as the powerplay produced 70/0 in just six overs with Shikhar Dhawan playing the attacking role. Dhawan fell in the very next over after the powerplay as he edged the ball to the keeper while trying to send it to third man.
Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane then put in a 47-run partnership for the second wicket. The batsmen were not able to score very freely as the field spread out. Rohit was the first to go as he was caught out brilliantly by Dushmantha Chameera off his own bowling.
Rahane followed suit in the very next over as his attempted pull went straight to Dilshan. After having got off to such a good start, it seemed like India lost their way as they were 127/3 in 14.2 overs.
However, Hardik Pandya was promoted to bat No. 5 and along with fellow new batsman, Suresh Raina stringed together a 59-run partnership in just 26 balls to help India set a competitive total.
Thisara Perera entered the record books as he became the first Sri Lankan to get a T20 hat-trick as he got the wickets of Pandya, Raina and Yuvraj Singh off the last three balls of the 19th over. The quick fall of wickets did not allow India to cross 200 as India set a target of 197.
India came out with positive intent to defend the total and put pressure on the Sri Lankans early on as they picked up three early wickets to reduce the visitors to 16/3 in 3.2 overs.
The heroes from the first T20I, Chandimal and Chamara Kapugedera, seemed like taking the game away from India with a 52-run partnership. However, Ravindra Jadeja sent back both batsmen to the pavilion in consecutive balls with some excellent work by Dhoni behind the stumps and a brilliant catch by Pandya.
Milinda Siriwardana and Dasun Shanaka hit a few lusty blows, but only delayed the inevitable as some clinical bowling from the Indian bowlers helped restrict Sri Lanka to just 127/9 in 20 overs.
Brief Scores: India 196/6, 20 overs (Dhawan 51, Rohit Sharma 43; Perera 3/33, Chameera 2/38) beat Sri Lanka 127/9, 20 overs (Kapugedera 32, Chandimal 31; Ashwin 3/14, Bumrah 2/17) by 69 runs.