Ind vs SL T20 : India defeated Sri Lanka by 43 runs in the first match of the three-match T20 series played in Pallekele on Saturday. With this win, Team India has taken a 1-0 lead in the series. The second match will be played on Sunday and the Indian team will have a chance to gain an unassailable lead. There was a time in the first match when it seemed that India could lose this match.
Gautam Gambhir SuryaKumar Yadav Era
However, the brilliant bowling by the Indian bowlers in the death overs once again gave Team India a win. With this win, the Gambhir-Suryakumar era got off to a great start. Suryakumar also played a captaincy innings and scored 58 runs in 26 balls with the help of eight fours and two sixes. He was also selected as the Player of the Match for this innings.
As soon as he got this award, Suryakumar equaled a big record of Virat Kohli. In fact, before this match, Virat had the record of winning the most Player of the Match awards in T20 Internationals. He has 16 Player of the Match awards in 125 T20 International matches. At the same time, Suryakumar has now equaled him by playing almost half the matches.
Suryakumar became the Player of the Match for the 16th time in the 69th T20 International match. Virat has now retired from T20I. In such a situation, Suryakumar has a chance to overtake Virat in this series. At number three is Sikandar Raza, who has become the Player of the Match 15 times in 91 T20 International matches.
On defeating Sri Lanka and getting the first win after becoming the regular captain of T20, Suryakumar said, ‘Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal were playing good cricket from the first ball. They were maintaining their rhythm and credit goes to them. We know how the wicket plays at night. We were lucky that there was no dew. The way we played in the World Cup reminded us that the game is still far from Sri Lanka’s grip.’ When asked whether the combination of left-right batsmen will remain in the upcoming matches? Captain Suryakumar said- Whatever works for the team, we will take decisions in that direction.
| Player | POTM Awards | T20I Matches |
|---|---|---|
| Suryakumar Yadav | 16 | 69 |
| Virat Kohli | 16 | 125 |
| Sikandar Raza | 15 | 91 |
| Mohammad Nabi | 14 | 129 |
| Rohit Sharma | 14 | 159 |
| Virandeep Singh | 14 | 78 |
At the same time, vice-captain Shubman Gill said- We were not nervous. We were constantly talking in the death overs and we knew that we just needed one wicket. It is great to bat with Yashasvi and we complement each other. Our style is different, our plan is simple – assess the conditions and then face the bowlers. When you are starting the innings, see how the pitch is behaving and play accordingly. This is the plan going forward as well.
India defeated Sri Lanka by 43 runs in the first match of the three-match T20 series. Batting first, India scored 213 runs for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs. In response, the Sri Lankan team was all out for 170 runs in 19.2 overs. At one time Sri Lanka’s score was 140 runs for one wicket. However, after this the Sri Lankan team lost the next nine wickets in scoring 30 runs.
Pathum Nissanka scored the highest 79 runs for Sri Lanka. On the other hand, Riyan Parag took the highest three wickets for India. He took two wickets on two consecutive balls in the 20th over. For India, apart from Suryakumar, Rishabh Pant scored 49 runs in 33 balls with the help of six fours and a six and Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 40 runs in 21 balls with the help of five fours and two sixes.
