Shreyas Iyer anchors India to series-clinching win

The batter hit 74* off 44 balls with support from Sanju Samson (39) and Ravindra Jadeja (45*) as India win the second T20 international against Sri Lanka by seven wickets in Dharamshala.

Any fear of rain playing spoilsport in the second T20I between India and Sri Lanka on Saturday gave way to a deluge of runs by the end of the night. Fours and sixes flowed from the batters of both sides, but Shreyas Iyer’s exploits ensured that the hosts ended victorious yet again. They chased down 184 in just 17.1 overs with seven wickets in hand to take an unassailable 2-0 series lead with one game left. Sanju Samson (39 off 25 balls) and Ravindra Jadeja (45* off 18 balls) provided support to Iyer.

Ravindra Jadeja, right, talks with his teammate Shreyas Iyer (AP)

Iyer’s 74* off 44 balls included six fours and four sixes as the ball soared into the pristine Dharamshala night sky on plenty of occasions. It overshadowed the efforts of Sri Lanka’s Pathum Nissanka (75 off 53 balls) and skipper Dasun Shanaka (47* off 19 balls).

Unlike the opening game, Rohit Sharma (1) and Ishan Kishan (16) were dismissed cheaply in the run chase. Iyer was in a dismissive mood though, especially against Sri Lanka’s left-armers. He slapped three boundaries off left-arm pacer Binura Fernando in the fifth over. In the ninth over it was the turn of left-arm spinner Praveen Jayawickrama to bear the brunt of two consecutive sixes by Iyer.

He was also destructive against the shorter lengths. Iyer got to his half-century off just 30 balls, with a short-arm hit down the ground for six against Chamika Karunaratne. Another six followed when Shanaka erred, bowling shorter outside off-stump.

It shouldn’t take anything away from Shanaka’s remarkable innings. When he came in with Sri Lanka on 102/5 in 14.4 overs, they seemed poised for a moderate total at best. Shanaka and Nissanka had other plans though. They put together a stand of 58 runs in 26 balls for the fifth wicket while the last four overs yielded 72 runs. Harshal Patel was at the receiving end of most of Shanaka’s brutality, conceding 1/52 in four overs.

It was a stunning turnaround for the visitors after the start Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah provided. Aided by the presence of swing on a chilly evening, they hit the right lengths and kept getting the ball to jag past the bat. The only thing they didn’t do was find the outside edge for that opening breakthrough, restricting the visitors to 15 runs in the first four overs.

At that stage, Sri Lanka’s openers Nissanka and Danishka Gunathilaka could do little than hope that the pressure will relent. It did once Kumar and Bumrah were out of the attack. Patel’s introduction in the fifth over brought 10 runs and a couple of fours.

Jadeja was also in for some harsh treatment in the ninth over when Gunathilaka dispatched him twice beyond the midwicket boundary in the space of three balls. Jadeja, however, took swift revenge. Off the fourth ball of that over, Gunathilaka miscued a slog sweep to a diving Venkatesh Iyer at long-on.

Three more wickets fell in quick succession before the Sri Lankan turnaround. Nissanka brought up his half-century off 43 balls and cut loose towards the end alongside Shanaka. Nissanka’s hat-trick of fours—including a scoop over the wicketkeeper and a reverse paddle through short third man—in the 18th over against Bumrah was striking.

Gaikwad out of series with wrist injury

Adding to the list of absentees for India in this T20I series, opener Ruturaj Gaikwad was ruled out of the final two games in Dharamshala due to an injury on his right wrist. He had complained of pain ahead of the first T20I in Lucknow on Thursday and missed the game. He will head to the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru for further management of his injury. Mayank Agarwal has been drafted in as a replacement.