Sri Lanka vs India First T20I: Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Suryakumar Yadav led India to win 38 runs in Colombo’s first T20I match on Sunday.
Surjakumar Yadav’s golden bat run was brilliantly balanced by Bhuvneshar Kumar’s Indian bowling unit since, during the first T20 International, visitors outscored Sri Lanka by 38 runs on Sunday. Where Surya’s second half-century T20 International — an appealing 50 off 34 bells — provided for a decent total of 164 for a 5, Yuzvendra Chahal (1:19 in 4 overs) oozed classes while Deepak Chahar (2:24 in 3 overs) and Bhuvneshwar (4:22 in 3:3 overs) took the wickets most importantly, 126 over the 18:3 bowling hosts. Indeed, Sri Lanka lost their last six wickets for only 15 runs from 111/4 in the 16th.
At the penultimate international audition in front of a T20 World Cup, Chahal did everything in the presence of the IPL star and debuting mystery spinner, Varun Chakravarthy, who might be the Indian team manager’s option for the tournament in Grapevine.
Not only did Chahal bowl 10 points apart from the ‘jaffa delivery’ to evict Dhanajaya de Silva, but he also bowled a magnificent fifteenth over the race for India which only allowed three runs. Dhawan introduced Krunal Pandya (1/2 overs), who immediately dismissed Minod Bhanuka after a whirlwind in the opening two overs.
Chahal has supposedly bowed the delivery of the match — Dhananjaya de Silva (9) was flown to play on the line and cast. Avishka Fernando’s last ODI hero, 26 years old, was also punished for his slowness while he tried to pull Bhuvneshwar.
Debutant Charith Asalanka (44 of 26 balls) had other ideas as he started out with Chakravarthy, an opposing rookie (1/28 of 4 balls) smoking him into a cow corner for 2 6 even as his companion Ashen Bandara (9 of 19 balls) fought at the other end.
Slow off-break from Hardik Pandya (1/17 in 2 overs) ended Bandara’s agony, but Asalanka had kept Sri Lanka in dispute with some major hits before being dismissed by Chahar.
Earlier, Suryakumar’s excellent form continued and was complemented by important input from skipper Shikhar Dhawan (46 of 38 balls) together with Ishan Kishan (20 not out of 14 balls) in the background.
Skipper Dhawan contributed 62 Surya to offer a strong pad in eight overviews, but the dismissal of this last one would definitely cost India 20 more +.
But when we look at the pair, it was clear that the junior partner fought more securely since he had already sealed his position in the T20 World Cup team while the skipper was still struggling with what looks like a lost struggle to fought within that jam-filled top rank in the main team.
Akila Dananjaya was six times deep, but the inns lacked the impact despite four more bounds. It was the five fours and six of Surya that really enabled Kishan and Hardik to launch the final attack.
In the beginning, Prithvi Shaw made a memorable International T20 debut while the outswinger of Dushmantha Chammera (2/24 in 4 overs) found the border of his bat at the very first match ball.
Sanju Samson (27 out of 20 balls) struck his ordinary 6 while batting like a billionaire before he was trapped with a googly by Wanindu Hasaranga (2/28 in 4 overalls).
Surya, as usual in her free-flowing personality, struck those whiplashes on the drives, cover drives, and ramp shots, both of which are a menace to pacers and spinners.
What was nevertheless exciting was how Surya took all the slower deliveries from seamers Isuru Udana and Chamika Karunaratne.
Udana was shipped with a standard border sweep whereas Karunaratne had a six-piece slog.
When Hasaranga finished, he went inside out to raise him up for six to finish his fiftieth but the leg-spinner was laughing because he had no fear of flying again and the inside-out chip shot didn’t need wings to rise above the ropes this time.
His ejection robbed India of a 175-plus opportunity.
