Sri Lanka Wins First Match Over India In T20 Three-Match Series
India's winning sequence in T20 internationals reached a humiliating end this evening after an intensely depleted Sri Lanka pulled off an agitated five-wicket triumph to take 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Put into bat on an energetic track, which had decent measure of bounce and seam movement, India were skittled out for a negligible 101 in 18.5 overs with rookie pace trio of Kasun Rajitha (3/29), Dashun Shanaka (3/16) and Dushmantha Chameera (2/14) doing greater part of the harm.
Sri Lanka achieved the target with two overs to save. Senior players Dinesh Chandimal (35) and Chamara Kapugedara (25) made helpful contributions.
It ended up being a blow for Mahendra Singh Dhoni after the team won 3-0 in the series Down Under to accomplish the top rank in ICC table for shortest format.
On the off chance that Rajitha cleared out the top-order, it was Shanaka and Chameera, who obliterated the middle and lower-order with just Ravichandran Ashwin with his unbeaten 31 home team cross the three-figure.
Such was the abject surrender by the Indian batsmen in the wake of additional bounce and moving deliveries that just Yuvraj Singh (10) and Suresh Raina (20) achieved the double figures apart from Ashwin.
At the point when Sri Lanka batted, they lost a couple of wickets in the middle of however the target was too little to guard as the 39-run stand between captain Chandimal and Kapugedara ended up being a clincher. Milinda Siriwardana struck 21 off 14 balls as he completed the match with a flourish hitting Jasprit Bumrah for a six and a boundary.
There was no dearth of effort from the Indian bowlers with Ashish Nehra (2/21 in 3 overs) and Ashwin (2/13 in 3 overs) got two or three wickets each yet it was the disappointment of the batsmen that hurt India the most.
We are in an era where it's hard to say for beyond any doubt that you've seen a cricketer on the field for one final time. Such is the recurrence, with which age-no-bar T20 alliances spring up nowadays that you're prone to go over natural bowling actions and batting stances. As a rule, in any case, the shapes and sizes of those showcasing them won't exactly be the same as the last time you spotted them.
India needs to win the upcoming T20I series against Sri Lanka to hold their number one position in the ICC T20I Championship table.
