The Indian team, on Sunday, scripted a comfortable win against Sri Lanka in the rain-affected second T20I match at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, thus sealing the series. The hosts amassed 169 for nine in 20 overs, but the target was reduced to 78 in eight overs after rain interrupted the match for the second time during India's chase. It was a stroll in the park for India with the bat as Hardik Pandya smashed two back-to-back boundaries to wrap up the game with nine balls to spare.
After a loss in the opening game of the series on Saturday, Sri Lanka seemed to bounce back riding on Kusal Perera's half-century, with the batter also being involved in a few fifty-run stands and the home team finding themselves in a pretty good position at 130/2 after 15 overs. However, they faltered in the death overs, losing seven wickets for just 39 runs, and ended up with a below-par score.
Rain arrived in Pallekele three balls into India's innings, and the match was stopped for over an hour. Upon resumption, the Indian batters made an absolute mockery of the revised target, even after losing Sanju Samson to a golden duck. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Suryakumar Yadav laid the foundation with their 39-run stand in just 13 balls, before Hardik smashed an unbeaten nine-ball 22 to help India script a second successive win in the series against Sri Lanka.
The win marked an impressive start for Gautam Gambhir as the new head coach of the Indian team, and Suryakumar, for whom it was the first series as a full-time T20I captain. The two were later seen having lengthy and intense chat moments after the match ended, although there was no audio available to clarify their discussion topic.
{{/usCountry}}The win marked an impressive start for Gautam Gambhir as the new head coach of the Indian team, and Suryakumar, for whom it was the first series as a full-time T20I captain. The two were later seen having lengthy and intense chat moments after the match ended, although there was no audio available to clarify their discussion topic.
{{/usCountry}}Suryakumar, in the post-match discussion, opened up on the brand of cricket India want to play as they build towards the 2026 T20 World Cup and they aim to stick to the Rohit Sharma-Rahul Dravid blueprint which saw the side lift the T20 World Cup last month.
"We spoke about this before this tournament - what brand of cricket we want to play. Even if it's a shorter target or whatever target we are chasing, this is the template which we would like to go ahead with," he said.
India will play the final match of the series against Sri Lanka at the same venue on Tuesday.