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Thursday, 29 July 2021 01:32 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Dhananjaya de Silva and Chamika Karunaratne ensured Sri Lanka would go into the final T20I today with it all to play for, as they secured a last-over four-wicket win over a heavily depleted India side in the second T20I at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo last night.
Despite having lost the ODI series and the opening T20I, Sri Lanka came into this game as unlikely favourites, as Krunal Pandya’s positive COVID-19 test had seen seven Indian players sidelined after being identified as close contacts.
This saw India come into the game with just four frontline batsmen available for selection, something the Lankan bowlers did well to take advantage of on a sluggish surface.
Having won the toss, Dasun Shanaka put the visitors into bat, and saw his bowlers – led by the excellent Dushmantha Chameera (1/23) – throttle the Indian batters. The pick of the Lankan bowlers was Akila Dananjaya who picked up figures of 2/29.
Shikhar Dhawan top scored for the visitors with a 42-ball 40, but a combination of a slow wicket, some tight bowling, and the lack of a deep batting line-up, meant he was never truly able to free his arms.
In the end India were able to cobble together a total of 132/5, which proved to be almost too much for a nervous Lankan outfit.
Their chase was anchored by an unbeaten 40 from Man of the Match Dhananjaya de Silva, who fittingly scored the winning runs with two balls left to spare. And it was a crucial innings too, as his partners at the other end kept losing their wickets.
The only other batsman to score anything of note was Minod Bhanuka, who put together a 31-ball 36 at the top of the innings.
For India, Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers with 2/30, but the likes of Varun Chakravarthy, Rahul Chahar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar all picked up a wicket apiece and kept the runrate low, to run Sri Lanka close.
The third and final T20I will take place today at the R. Premadasa.
Scores: India 132-5 (Ruturaj Gaikwad 21, Shikhar Dhawan 40, Devdutt Padikkal 29, Akila Dananjaya 2/29) lost to Sri Lanka 133-6 (19.4) (Minod Bhanuka 36, Dhananjaya de Silva 40*, Kuldeep Yadav 2/30) by 4 wickets.
