Player of the Match
Player of the Match
1860dThe Report by Andrew Fidel Fernando at Premadasa

Kusal Perera's assault helps Sri Lanka hunt down 175

The batsman marked his return from injury with a 22-ball fifty, while Shikhar Dhawan's 49-ball 90 went in vain

Match Centre

Statistics

Best performances - Batsmen

S Dhawan
S Dhawan
90(49) 6x4 - 6x6
Control %76%
  • Productive Shot
  • pull
  • 31 runs
  • 1x4 - 4x6
17 14 4 9 18 4 12 12
MDKJ Perera
MDKJ Perera
66(37) 6x4 - 4x6
Control %87%
  • Productive Shot
  • flick
  • 9 runs
  • 0x4 - 0x6
4 0 11 7 13 6 14 11

Best performances - Bowlers

Washington Sundar
Washington Sundar
O4
M0
R28
W2
Eco7.00
RHB
OFFLEG
1W
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF
1W
PVD Chameera
O4
M0
R33
W2
Eco8.25
RHB
OFFLEG
1W
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF
1W

Match Details

Toss

Sri Lanka , elected to field first

Player Of The Match

Match number

Season

Hours of play (local time)

19.00 start, First Session 19.00-20.25, Interval 20.25-20.45, Second Session 20.45-22.10

Match days

06 March 2018 - night match (20-over match)

T20I debut

TV Umpires

Reserve Umpire

Match Referee

Points

Sri Lanka 2, India 0

Scorer: @Cricket_Lama | Commentator: Shashank Kishore

So, quite a start that to the Nidahas Trophy. Hope you enjoyed our coverage. Hope to see you on Thursday for India v Bangladesh. Until then, this is Shashank Kishore saying goodbye on behalf of my colleague Deivarayan Muthu. Cheers!

Time for the post-match presentations

Kusal Perera is the Player of the Match for his 66 off 37 balls. "This is the best innings I've played," he beams. "I was confident in my abilities. I'm feeling 100 percent fit now."

Dinesh Chandimal: Very happy as a team. Trying to play competitive cricket, we knew good results will follow if we do that. This is all about transferring confidence from the Bangladesh series. The management have done a wonderful job at training sessions. Really happy! Chandika Hathurusingha has been amazing. This result shows how good we are as a team."

Rohit Sharma is quite frank in his assessment: I think we got a par score, something we could've played with. Having seen the wicket here - it was flat - I thought we could have accelerated towards the end. That said, we still had a decent score but the kind of start Sri Lanka got was amazing. Credit to them as a batting group. Our bowlers tried everything they could, but sometimes it doesn't come off the way you want it to. I felt we have enough experience in our bowling line-ups. Yes, they are new in the scene, but they've put in performances. I had a lot of confidence going into the game. Yes, the execution wasn't upto the mark but we can learn from our mistakes. On a wicket like that, your batting has to be as strong as possible. We're blessed to have a squad that has good batting depth, we also have a couple of allrounders. Hopefully we'll come back strong.

Interesting nugget from Bishen Jeswant, former statistician with ESPNcricinfo: Each of Sri Lanka's top seven made double-digit scores today. This has happened only once previously in a successful chase (by Afgh v UAE, Dubai, 2016).

Dhaval: "Certainly T20 is a batsmen's game, but its your bowlers' skills that can win you matches. Clearly India didn't use their skills so well today."

Jameel : "Just goes on to show how much of a difference Bhuvi & Bumrah make to the Indian bowling attack. The familiar sight of Indian pacers taken to the cleaners, oh no. At least this match has given India a chance to rethink its strategies and understand their shortcoming."

Sri Lanka have broken their seven-match T20 losing streak against India

The cricket might be over but there is lots of top-flight footballing action left for tonight: PSG vs Real Madrid and Liverpool vs Porto in the Champions League. Fans in the subcontinent can stream both the games here.

10.25pm Sri Lanka were cruising high and happy, only to shudder briefly at the first sign of turbulence but they found a way to once again regain altitude and then cruise home to victory. Thisara's blitz in the end helped them close the game out but that they got well ahead of the asking rate early on was thanks to Kusal Perera's 22-ball half-century. India will rue their slow batting, especially towards the end of their innings, but at least they'd know it wasn't because of lack of trying. They could also perhaps rue the absence of an extra bowler. Going in with a super-deep batting line-up left them hoping and praying one of Vijay or Raina come good with the ball tonight, more so after one of their frontline bowlers disappeared early on. For now, let's doff our hat to the fans who turned up in large numbers to make it an evening it turned out to be. How much I've enjoyed hearing the kind of noise, music and dancing like there was today. The hosts will be super-delighted with their efforts tonight.

18.3
4
Thakur to NLTC Perera, FOUR, backs away and pulls this short ball into the deep square leg boundary. Hugs, fist pumps and roar in the Sri Lankan camp. Premadasa goes wild, a strong crowd in excess of 20,000 have had their monies worth. What a game!
18.2
2
Thakur to NLTC Perera, 2 runs, short on middle, he's pulled this down to deep square as they hare for the second.
18.1
1
Thakur to Shanaka, 1 run, drives this length ball to cover as they scamper a run
18.1
1w
Thakur to Shanaka, 1 wide, slides a full-length delivery down leg. Easy call for the umpire this time

END OF OVER:
18 | 16 Runs | SL: 167/5 (8 runs required from 12 balls, RR: 9.27, RRR: 4.00)

  • Thisara Perera16 (8b)
  • Dasun Shanaka14 (17b)
  • Jaydev Unadkat3-0-35-1
  • Vijay Shankar2-0-15-0
17.6
4
Unadkat to NLTC Perera, FOUR, looks for a yorker but this ends up being a low full toss which Thisara belts back over Unadkat's head to the long-on boundary this time. That has firmly tilted the scales in Sri Lanka's favour
17.5
6
Unadkat to NLTC Perera, SIX, in his swinging arc and Thisara has belted this over the long-off boundary. This was just too full, right down his alley. That's his favourite length.

Top chase

0

No. of higher successful run-chases at Premadasa Stadium than the 175 by Sri Lanka in this match. The previous highest was 173 by Pakistan in 2015.

Powerful powerplay

75

Runs scored by Sri Lanka in the powerplays, their most ever. This is also the second-most runs conceded by India against any side in powerplays.

Dhawan's highest

80

Previous highest score for Shikhar Dhawan in T20Is. He's gone past that in this match. All his top-3 T20I scores have come in his last 7 inns.

SL's misery venue

2-12

Sri Lanka's win-loss record at Premadasa in T20Is in 14 matches before this. Their win-loss ratio of 0.166 is the second-worst for any team at a venue playing 10 or more matches.