India began their 2023 cricketing year with the first of the three T20Is against Sri Lanka, which was played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on January 3, 2023.
Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to field first. India gave debuts to Shubman Gill and Shivam Mavi. India had an excellent start thanks to Ishan Kishan (37 in 29 balls). However, the top order failed to come good as Shubman Gill (7), Suryakumar Yadav (7) and Sanju Samson (5) fell early, followed by Kishan and then captain Hardik Pandya (26), who had gotten himself set.
At 94/5 in the 15th over, Akshar Patel and Deepak Hooda came together and pressed onto the accelerator 68* runs for the 6th wicket with Hooda making 41* in 23 balls with 4 sixes and one four and Akshar making 31* in 20 balls, India’s final total read 162/5 in 20 overs.
In reply, Shivam Mavi took two wickets to hurt Sri Lanka badly as Pathum Nissanka got bowled for 1 run and Dhananjaya de Silva fell for 8 runs. Charith Asalanka looked in good touch but his knock came to an end thanks to an amazing catch by keeper Ishan Kishan.
Umran Malik bowled a straight length around the off stump and Asalanka tried to pull the ball, only to get a top edge. Harshal Patel was readying himself for the catch, coming from the deep, but Kishan had the ball in his vision and called for it, running to the fine-leg boundary and finally diving to complete an excellent catch.
This catch left Sri Lanka 47/3 in the 8th over.
Check out the catch here:
