COLOMBO: Sri Lanka sealed a T20 series win against India due to a spirited all-round performance led by stunning bowling figures of 4 wickets for 9 runs (off 4 overs) by birthday boy Hasaranga celebrating his 24th birthday today. Sri Lanka won by 7 wickets reaching the target of 82 runs in the 15th over to record the maiden T20 series win against India. This is the first series win for Sri Lanka against India in any format in 13 years.
Shikhar Dhawan winning the toss, chose to bat first. A challenging phase for Dhawan , who was leading a depleted team due to nine players in isolation, after Krunal Pandya tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this week. Sandeep Warrier, made his T20 debut for India despite being on tour as a net bowler.
Kuldeep Yadav top scored with 23 runs from 28 balls and ensured India goes past India’s lowest T20 score of 79 runs by reaching 81 runs in the allotted 20 overs.
Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka demonstrated exemplary leadership qualities together with a fiery display of bowling (2 wickets for 20 runs) and fielding with two acrobatic catches.
Sri Lanka chased the target of 81 runs set by India with 33 balls remaining with fall of only 3 wickets. Rahul Chahar attempted to rock the boat with a fiery spell of 3 wickets giving away only 15 runs. Dhananjaya de Silva repeating his recent heroics scored 23 runs off 30 balls to stabilize the low scoring innings to reach the target. Hasaranga contributed with 14 runs off 9 balls.
Wonder boy Wanindu Hasaranga was adjudged the man of the match for his all-round match winning performance. He was also adjudged the fittest player of the series due to his series haul of 7 wickets.
