Sri Lanka bounce back to beat India and level Twenty20 series
Disciplined bowling and Dhanajaya de Silva’s unbeaten 40 helped Sri Lanka to a series-levelling four-wicket win over India in the Covid-19 delayed second Twenty20 international on Wednesday.
Chasing 133 for victory, Sri Lanka depended on an unbeaten 28-run seventh-wicket partnership between De Silva and Chamika Karunaratne, who made 12, to achieve their target with two balls to spare in Colombo.
De Silva kept his nerve in the 34-ball knock ater Sri Lanka were in trouble at 105-6 and along with Karunaratne, who hit a timely six in the penultimate over, helped the hosts level the three-match series at 1-1.
Sri Lankan bowlers led by Akila Dananjaya kept India down to 132-5 ater the tourists fielded four debutants following virus positive Krunal Pandya and eight of his close contacts forced to sit out, which was postponed hours before the scheduled start on Tuesday.
Dananjaya, who bowls a subtle mix of finger spin and wrist spin, returned figures of 2-29 including the key wicket of skipper Shikhar Dhawan, bowled for 40.
The let-handed Dhawan put on a brisk 49-run opening stand with debutant Ruturaj Gaikwad (21) and carried on in the same vein with Devdut Padikkal (29), also playing his first T20 on what seemed a sluggish pitch.
Butwaninduhasarangabowledthelet-handed Padikkal in the 16th over with his leg-spin as India found it tough to push the run rate.
Wicketkeeper-batsman Sanju Samson and debutant Nitish Rana also failed to boost India’s total as they fell to Dananjaya and pace bowler Dushmantha Chameera respectively.
Avishka Fernando was out early for 11 off pace bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the Sri Lankan chase, but Minod Bhanuka hit a brisk 36.
Spinnerskuldeepyadavandvarunchakravarthy hurt the middle-order with key strikes including skipper Dasun Shanaka for three before De Silva hit back and completed the win. The third and deciding T20 is on Thursday at the same venue.
All the matches are being held at the R. Premadasa Stadium, without spectators as Sri Lanka batles a surge in pandemic cases.
Meanwhile, Indian Test team captain Virat
Kohli and vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, who missed the tourists’ lone warm-up match against County Select XI due to niggles last week in England, were back to practice and geared up for the Test series beginning on Aug.4, with a net session on the centre pitch.
Both Kohli and Rahane had bating sessions along with No. 3 batsman Cheteshwar Pujara and Mayank Agarwal, who is expected to open with Rohit Sharma in the first Test in Notingham.
“#Teamindia back at it and having a centre wicket training at Durham Cricket Club ahead of the five-match Test series against England,” tweeted the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) alongwith pictures of the batsmen having nets.
Scoreboard:
India
R Gaikwad c Bhanuka b Shanaka S Dhawan b Dananjaya D Padikkal b Hasaranga S Samson b Dananjaya
N Rana c De Silva b Chameera 21 40 29 7 9
B Kumar not out N Saini not out
Extras (b1, w11) Total (5 wickets, 20 overs) Bowling: Chameera 4-0-23-1, Karunaratne 1-0-6-0, Dananjaya 4-0-29-2, Udana 1-0-7-0, Hasaranga 4-0-30-1, Shanaka 2-0-14-1, Mendis 2-0-9-0, De Silva 2-0-13-0
Sri Lanka (target 133)
A Fernando c Chahar b Kumar M Bhanuka c Chahar b Yadav Samarawickrama b Chakravarthy D Shanaka st Samson b Yadav
D de Silva not out
W Hasaranga c Kumar b Chahar R Mendis c Gaikwad b Sakariya C Karunaratne not out
Extras (lb3, w3)
Total (6 wickets, 19.4) Bowling: Kumar 4-0-21-1, Sakariya 3.4-0-34-1 (w2), Chakravarthy 4-018-1, Chahar 4-0-27-1, Yadav 4-0-302 (w1) 13 1
12 132
11 36 8 3 40 15 2 12
6 133