Skipper Dasun Shanaka blazed away to an unbeaten 47 off a mere 19 balls after opener Pathum Nissanka top-scored with a 53-ball 75 as Sri Lanka posted a stiff 183 for five against India in the second T20 International here on Saturday.
Having got himself in after his opening partner Danushka Gunathilaka (38 off 29 balls) laid the foundation, Nissanka cut loose and struck his runs at over 140. He found the fence 11 times until Bhuvneshwar Kumar got him on the final ball of the penultimate over.
However, Sri Lanka wouldn’t have got to what they eventually managed had it not been for Shanaka’s five massive sixes and two fours.
India’s new ball operators, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah got the white ball to swing in the first few overs, beat the bat and hit the pads with the latter losing one review after a huge shout for an lbw in the second over.
The Sri Lankan openers got their act together as the innings progressed with Gunathilaka, especially taking on the Indian bowling attack. Gunathilaka’s, as well as Sri Lanka’s, first authoritative shot of the match came when he played Bumrah though the covers in the third over.
The attacking left-handed opener pulled Harshal Patel for his second boundary, even as the Indians managed to keep things fairly quiet in the middle. Nissanka welcomed Yuzvendra Chahal with a boundary, rocking back to cut the leg-spinner’s loosener through the cover point region, but the visitors were still not able to get the run rate they were looking for.
However, from a poor 32 for no loss after the six power play overs, Sri Lanka got a move-on with Gunathilaka clobbering Ravindra Jadeja for 18 runs in an eventful ninth over, which also saw the dismissal of the man in form. The first ball was full outside off and Gunathilaka went down the wicket to smoke it over deep midwicket for the evening’s first six.
A length ball outside off was played over the cover-point fielder for a four and having forced Jadeja to come around the stumps after the left-arm spinner had started from over the wicket, Gunathilaka got his second maximum when he smashed one over the deep midwicket boundary.
But Jadeja had the last laugh when, trying to go for one too many, Gunathilaka played one high up in the air towards long-on and Venkatesh Iyer managed to hold on to the skier after seeming to have misjudged it at the picturesque, floodlit Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium where a sizeable (50 percent full) crowd was making plenty of noises.
Using his resources well, skipper Rohit Sharma got another breakthrough, Charith Asalanka (2), who was trapped in front of the wicket by Chahal.
Kamil Mishara (1) too got out cheaply, falling to Bumrah’s slow off-cutter. But Nissanka found an able ally in Shanaka, adding 58 quick runs for the fifth wicket to prop up their team.
