India defeated Sri Lanka by 2 runs in the first T20I match in Mumbai.
India had batted first and posted 162/5 with Kishan making 37, Hardik Pandya making 29, Deepak Hooda (41*), and Akshar Patel (31*) producing the final overs blitz.
In return, Sri Lanka found themselves in trouble with Shivam Mavi doing the damage with figures of 4/22 on his ODI debut. Captain Dasun Shanaka made 45 runs to keep Sri Lanka on track and then Chamika Karunaratne made 23* to bring Sri Lanka very close to the target.
Umran Malik was also one of the stars of India’s win as he picked up the wickets of Shanaka and before him, Charith Asalanka for 12 runs.
Asalanka tried to pull a short of a length ball from Umran, but only managed to top-edge it. The ball flew towards the fine leg boundary, but Ishan Kishan, who was keeping wickets, followed it like a hawk and called early to claim a wonderfully judged and diving catch.
Hardik Pandya, the captain, was awestruck by the catch and he was cheered wildly by the thousands in the Wankhede stadium.
Speaking to fielding coach T Dilip after the thrilling victory for BCCI, Ishan Kishan revealed that the team learned from the mistakes that they made during an ODI series in Bangladesh in December and worked hard during the training catches to take high catches.
"I think we have seen when we were playing in Bangladesh, there were a few catches which we missed because of calling, lack of proper sound while calling. So I thought when I am going for a catch, I will go all-out, I would create confusion. So I called. Even when we were practicing, I was discussing with the coach that calling is very important. So we practiced this and we practiced high-catching with tennis rackets and soft balls. All the hard work paid off,” Ishan said.
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Fielding coach T Dilip was also all praise for Ishan.
"Catching while running back is very difficult. We all know your speed is great. That was a fabulous catch," he said.
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The 2nd T20I between India and Sri Lanka will be played at the MCA Stadium in Pune on Thursday, January 5.