Press Trust of India
Ranchi, Feb 12: India regained their winning touch with a spectacular all-round display as they thrashed Sri Lanka by 69 runs in the second T20 international to level the three-match series 1-1 here Friday.
After the batsmen had guided India to an imposing 196 for six in 20 overs, the pacers and spinners worked in tandem to wreck the victors’ batting.
The visitors made a mess of the steep chase by losing their first three wickets for 16 runs. Ravichandran Ashwin (3/14) struck in the first legitimate ball of the innings with Dhoni pulling off a split second stumping to send back Tillakaratne Dilshan for a duck.
Old horse Ashish Nehra (2/26) had Seekkuge Prasanna on the very first ball of his opening spell before inducing an edge from opener Danushka Gunathilaka to leave Sri Lanka tottering. They could never recover from the start. Later on Ravindra Jadeja (2/24) and Jasprit Bumrah (2/17) bowled brilliant spells to ensure an emphatic victory for the hosts.
Earlier Shikhar Dhawan (51, 25b, 7×4, 2×6) smashed his maiden T20 International half century to fire India to 196 for the loss of six wickets.
The Lankans managed to keep the hosts below the 200-run mark because of Thisara Perera (3/33) who achieved a hat-trick dismissing Hardik Pandya (27, 12b, 1×4, 2×6), Suresh Raina (30, 19b, 5×4) and Yuvraj Singh with the last three deliveries of the 19th over. This was the fourth ever hat-trick in T20 cricket and the first by a Sri Lankan bowler.
Dhawan stood out in India’s run feast with the other notable performance coming from his opening partner Rohit Sharma (43, 36b, 2×4, 1×6) as the two put on 75 in seven overs for the opening stand.
Dhawan got going with a couple of delightful sixes. He first flicked Perera over mid-wicket before sweeping spinner Sachithra Senanayake in the following over for another maximum. There was no stopping Dhawan after that as he got to his maiden T20 International fifty in 22 balls.
Ajinkya Rahane who joined Rohit after Dhawan’s dismissal continued the run riot by hitting consecutive fours off medium pacer Dasun Shanaka. Later on Pandya coming in ahead of MS Dhoni, smashed Senanayake for consecutive sixes before Raina joined the part by picking up four fours off Chameera in the very next over.
