At the toss, India won and decided to bat first. He said – “We are gonna bat first. We’ll look to post a good score. Our bowling is quite strong, so we are going to defend. We are just focusing on today’s game, we are not going to take any pressure from the past.”
Also he said that since Navdeep Saini is injured, Sandeep Warrier will take his place and mark his debut.
Poor start for India!
However his decision to bat first back fired spectacularly. On the fourth ball of the over, Dushmantha Chameera struck. He sent the Indian captain back when the southpaw edged to slips. Dhawan was out for a golden duck and all hopes of him playing a captain’s knock went up in smoke.
The other opener Rituraj Gaikwad and number 3 Padikkal added 23 runs for the second wicket. Just when they had started to look comfortable, Padikkal was run out in an unfortunate circumstances. After that, it was a procession of Indian wickets. In the very next over, Sanju Samson was caught plumb in front of the wicket.
He was dismissed by Wanindu Hasaranga who had a ball of a time with the ball. Just 2 balls later, Rituraj Gaikwad was also found before the wicket on an individual score pf 14. The double whammy left team India tottering at 25-4 after 5 overs.
The last specialist batsman Nitish Rana was caught in a sensational way by Dasun Shanaka off his own bowling. He could contribute only 6 runs with the bat and his departure meant India were in a hole at 36-5 after 9 overs.
With only tail enders to follow, the fate of the Indian innings was all but sealed. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar made 16 runs to drag India past their lowest T20 total of 74 runs. In the end, Kuldeep Yadav held his own and remained unbeaten at 23. Hence India finished with a low total of 81-8 in 20 overs.
For Sri Lanka, Wanindu Hasaranga was the star with the ball. he took 4 wickets for just 9 runs in 4 overs.
Watch all the wickets here :
