"Srilanka beat the India C team with a little help from umpires"- Fans react after India's close loss in the second T20I
Sri Lanka managed to level the three-match T20I series against India by winning their second match on Wednesday night. Dhananjaya de Silva(40*) played a sensible match-winning knock to see his side home in a tight chase of 133.
Chamika Karunaratne's(12* in 6 balls) little cameo was also very vital, as his big hits against Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the 19th over sealed the deal for Sri Lanka in the chase. The Indian team put on an admirable fight even though they played with a highly inexperienced batting line-up, in which Bhuvneshwar Kumar had to bat at number six position.
The two sides will now collide in the series decider on Thursday at the same venue. Navdeep Saini injured himself while fielding during the penultimate over of the match. Due to injury issues, it looks unlikely that Saini will be unavailable for the next contest. Team India might hand a debut to either Sai Kishore or Arshdeep Singh tomorrow to replace Saini in the playing XI.
Indian cricket fans applauded India's efforts in the match and took to Twitter to voice their opinions. Most of them slammed the Sri Lankan team and their fans for extravagant celebrations after winning against an "India C" side. They also pointed out that bad umpiring decisions assisted them during the chase.
Fans react on Twitter after India's close loss in the second T20I
We knew we had to construct the innings smartly: Shikhar Dhawan
During the post-match presentation, Indian skipper Shikhar Dhawan expressed his delight over the fight put on by his inexperienced side to take the game to the last over with a small total.
He added that the batting unit had to revise their plans considering they were a batsmen short in the contest. Dhawan said:
"The surface had some turn, and it was also stopping a bit. Of course, we knew one batsman was short, and we knew we had to construct the innings smartly. We had to content ourselves at some point due to the limitations. But yeah, we were 10-15 runs short. I am very proud of the boys because we fought very well. It was amazing to witness the never-die attitude in the boys. It was a great effort, taking the game deep while defending just 132, hats off to both bowlers and batters."