India recorded their 10th consecutive victory in T20 Internationals on Thursday when they crushed a lowly Sri Lanka by a huge margin of 62 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the ongoing three match series, at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow.
India's wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan turned up the heat on a depleted Sri Lanka bowling attack, hammering 10 boundaries and 3 sixes to score a stunning 89 whereas the middle-order batsman Shreyas Iyer raced to a 28-ball 57 not out to power India to a strong total of 199/2 in their 20 overs.
Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka's decision to invite India to bat first indeed proved horribly wrong as apart from the No 4 batsman Charith Asalanka, none of his batsmen could trouble the scorers much, with the visitors crawling to a moderate total of 137/6 in their reply from 20 overs, eventually losing their fifth match out of the last six on the road.
Sri Lanka are coming off an embarrassing 1-4 defeat at the hands of Australia in the opponent’s backyard.
The absence of their star spinner Wanindu Hasaranga also proved too costly for the visitors, whose bowlers were hammered all over the park in the first match by the rampant Indian batsmen.India captain R Sharma was happy to play second fiddle to the young Ishan Kishan, who played a stunning knock on Thursday night. Kishan’s innings was decorated with strokes all around the park and some of them were absolutely mesmerising. While Kishan was unfortunate to have missed out on a deserving century, by the time he was dismissed, India had already out-batted Sri Lanka from the contest.
Kishan was dismissed on the last ball of the 17th over, by then India had amassed 155 runs on the board which would have been just enough to intimidate this young and inexperienced Sri Lankan batting line-up, which later on in the evening could not challenge the Indian bowlers despite carrying a lot of promise in their ranks.
Rohit and Kishan added 111 runs from a little under 12 overs to put India right in command of the contest. While Kishan was going hammer and tongs, Rohit was happy to play a patient knock of 44, for which the Indian captain consumed 32 balls while hitting a couple of boundaries and one hit over the fence.
The association between Rohit and Kishan was broken after India had seized control of the contest on Thursday night. India could have done okay with 30-40 odd runs in the remaining 3 overs, but the middle-order batsman Shreyas Iyer had other plans.
After a moderate start, Iyer switched into an aggressive mode seamlessly, with the right-handed batsman finishing at a high of 57 not out from just 28 balls, an innings which was studded with 5 boundaries and 2 spectacular sixes over long on.
India's target of 200 runs was beyond the reach of the Sri Lankan batsmen who were expected to threaten the hosts with their animated batting. The biggest hope in the Sri Lankan camp, Pathum Nissanka, however, had a shocking dismissal on the first ball of the innings when a soft-handed defense off the first ball from Bhubaneswar Kumar dropped on the ground and rolled onto his wickets to knock down the bails, in what turned out to be a bizarre dismissal.
Sri Lanka middle-order batsmen Janith Liyanage failed to make the most of a lifeline which was given to him by India all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer, who dropped a regulation catch in the deep. Liyanage made 11 from 17 balls without any boundary whereas the other opening batsman Kamil Mishara also disappointed with a 12-ball 13, for which he hit a couple of boundaries.
Bhuvneshwar was impressive in his spell on Thursday night, returning with 2-0-9-2 whereas all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer took 2/36 from his 3 overs. In a phase where India experimented with their choice of players and team combinations, they used as many as seven bowling options in a contest which was won by their batsmen alone.
But all was not gloomy in the Sri Lankan camp with Asalanka waging a lone battle at one end. The No 4 batsman hit 5 boundaries to bring up a fine half-century of 53 runs, for which he faced 47 balls. While his half-century delayed the inevitable, Sri Lanka would be deeply disappointed with the way the rest of their batsmen performed in the opening match of the series.
The two teams will now travel to Dharamsala where they will play the remaining two matches of the T20I series over the weekend.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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