Sri Lanka squeeze win in second T20 against India

The home team needed eight runs off the final Chetan Sakariya over and got there with 2 balls to spare.

Chamika Karunaratne (12* off 6) and Dhananjaya de Silva (40* off 34) were Sri Lanka’s heroes as they chased down India’s 132-run target in a low-scoring in the 2nd T20I at the Premadasa stadium to square the series 1-1. The home team needed eight runs off the final Chetan Sakariya over and got there with 2 balls to spare.

Dhananjaya de Silva's unbeaten 40 helps Sri Lanka win the 2nd T20I by 4 wickets to level series 1-1. (ICC / Twitter)

Sri Lanka had been reduced to 66-4 in the 12th over before Akila Dhananjaya and Wanindu Hasaranga began changing the course of the innings with a 28-run partnership. This was only Sri Lanka's second win in their last 14 completed T20Is since October 2019.

India was forced to go with an unusually bowling-heavy playing eleven with all eight close contacts of Covid positive Krunal Pandya unavailable for selection. But 3 of their 6 bowlers at work--Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy and Rahul Chahar--became a formidable spin force on a spin-friendly surface, sharing four wickets to keep India in the contest. (IND vs SL 2nd T20I Highlights)

In what has been a tour marked by many Indian debutants, there were four more on view on Wednesday--Ruturaj Gaikwad, Devdutt Padikkal, Nitish Rana and Sakariya. But India had to account for their light batting order which reflected in Shikhar Dhawan-Ruturaj Gaikwad’s low-risk approach in the powerplay (45-0).

Once Gaikwad fell in the seventh over after a good-looking 21, no Indian batsmen found scoring easy. The ball began to take sharp turn as Hasaranga (1-30), fresh from his move up to No.2 of ICC rankings, combined with the multi-skilled Akila Dananjaya (2-29) to keep the Indians in check. Dhawan 40 (42b) was the only one to get five boundaries but even his strike rate remained below run-a-ball.