Yashasvi Jaiswal and captain Suryakumar Yadav showed off their diverse skill set as India jumped out to an insurmountable 2-0 lead and won the second T20 International by seven wickets in the rain-shortened match.
A string of strikes by Yashasvi Jaiswal and captain Suryakumar Yadav gave India a 2-0 lead as India won the rain-shortened second T20I by seven wickets with nine balls to spare in Pallekele on Sunday. Head coach Gautam Gambhir and new captain Suryakumar couldn’t have asked for a better start to their young career, with the Indian team playing as World T20 champions, even more so than Sri Lanka in every department. Despite the absence of Shubman Gill due to a sprained neck and another failure in the line-up of Sanju Samson (0), Jaiswal (30 runs from 15 balls) and Suryakumar (26 runs from 12 balls) were another excellent performance restricted to Sri Lanka to 161. for 9 before sweating it out in a short but tough chase that saw them score 78 runs in eight overs.
The Mumbai pair chose to pull out both the conventional and reverse sweep shots just as Maheesh Theekshana was beginning to appear threatening getting Samson with a carrom ball and squaring up Surya with a doosra.
The plan was to prevent confusion by preventing Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga from making off-target deliveries.
Rather, the Indian hitters effectively utilized their reach to stifle the turn. When Surya and Jaiswal were removed, they had scored 39 runs in 3.1 overs, with seven fours and three sixes shared between them.
Hardik Pandya (22 not out off 9 balls) and Rishabh Pant (2 not out) had to finish the formalities in 6.3 overs to make Tuesday’s series decider meaningless.
After being comfortably situated at 130 for 2 in 15 overs, the host team lost as many as seven wickets for 31 runs in their final 30 balls after Surya called right earlier in the day. His bowlers then performed a duplicate performance on subsequent days.
Charith Asalanka‘s team lost momentum after scoring 80 in the first ten overs and was in a position to accelerate. Pandya’s (2/23 in 2 overs) change of pace and Ravi Bishnoi‘s (3/26 in 4 overs) quick googlies proved to be the difference. The team managed just 81 runs in the back 10.
With two wickets each, Axar Patel and Arshdeep Singh also contributed.
This came after experienced southpaw Kusal Perera (53 off 34 balls) and Pathum Nissanka (32 off 24 balls) put up 54 runs for the second wicket in six overs to lay the groundwork, only to have hitters chase them and fritter it away.
All-rounders Dasun Shanaka (0) and Hasaranga (0) played careless strokes as the Indian bowlers tightened the noose around the Lankan hitters, desperate to break free. The scowl on interim head coach Sanath Jayasuriya‘s forehead was evident.
After reaching 130 for 2 in 15 overs, Sri Lanka had their second consecutive middle-order collapse in which they lost four wickets in ten deliveries and were never able to recover.
Gambhir’s backroom brainstorming helped Surya with his bowling strategies, as seen by the way he kept Bishnoi out of the attack. Bishnoi appeared to struggle against the Sri Lankan top-order when more right-handers were hitting his wrong-un.
Beginning with the youthful Riyan Parag (0/30 in 4 overs), he instructed him to attack the stumps with sporadic turns despite his five boundaries and ten dot balls. Meanwhile, Axar Patel (2/30 in 4 overs) persisted in his wicket-to-wicket dart-like precision.
The ball gripped off the surface and traveled at a reasonable speed, confusing batters as to whether to change their stance or advance.
The adjustment Bishnoi made the night before, changing the speed of his googlies for Nissanka, Shanaka, and Hasaranga—fastest for Nissanka, somewhat slower for Shanaka, and flat and low for Hasaranga—was highly successful once he entered.
