Sri Lankan team turned things around a few days back in the third ODI against India with a convincing victory and showed that the team still has the potential and hunger to fight for win.
But a thumping victory by India in the first T20I of the three-match series on Sunday (25th July) would have surely blown away the confidence of the hosts.
Sri Lanka opted to bowl first after winning the toss and had a dream start with the wicket of Prithvi Shaw on the very first ball of the match. India recovered well post the early blow with skipper Shikhar Dhawan and Suryakumar Yadav scoring runs for the team, but Sri Lanka kept fighting back with wickets.
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The visitors could only manage a par score of 164/5 in 20 overs, with Suryakumar giving yet another strong performance, as the batsman registered his second T20I fifty off just 33 deliveries.
In response, the hosts started off well in the powerplay but once again lost the plot in the middle overs. Barring the debutant Charith Asalanka (the highest run scorer of the match for Sri Lanka), no batsman looked comfortable at the crease.
The chase folded quickly as the last six Sri Lankan wickets fell in a span of 19 deliveries and gathering just 15 runs for the team. The hosts were wrapped up for just 126 runs with 9 deliveries spare as they fell short by 38 runs.
For India, Bhuvneshwar Kumar proved out to be the stand-out bowler with four scalps to his name, but other bowlers also played their part perfectly. India used six bowlers and all of them were among the wickets, giving a perfect display of team effort.
Unable to chase a par target of 165, the Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka blamed the batsmen for the loss but shared praise on his bowlers for restricting India to just 164 in the first innings.
“164 was chaseable on this wicket. Bowlers up front started well but our batsmen faltered. Asalanka and Bandara's wicket was the turning point for us. I thought our bowlers did an amazing job on this wicket” Shanaka said in the post-match presentation.
The second T20I of the series will be played on Tuesday (27th July) at the same venue. This is a must-win game for the hosts to stay alive in the series while the visitors will look to win clinch the series with another victory.
(Inputs from SportsCafe)
