Catches win matches, as goes the famous adage. But Sri Lanka couldn’t pouch a couple of crucial ones on Thursday. Opener Ishan Kishan, the fortunate man on both occasions, took full advantage of the lapses and made the Sri Lankans pay with his 56-ball 89. His blistering knock powered India to 199/2 in the first T20I at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow.
Thereafter, a weak batting display from the visitors helped India eventually win by a handsome margin of 62 runs to go one up in the three-match series. For the record, this was Team India’s 10th straight victory in T20Is since their defeat to New Zealand in the T20 World Cup last year.
After the hammering from Ishan and Shreyas Iyer (57 not out off 28 balls), Sri Lanka lost Pathum Nissanka off the very first ball of their reply off Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s bowling and their run-chase could never be on track after that. India’s premier bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, went wicketless in his comeback game, while Ravindra Jadeja, returning to the team after almost three months, struck just once.
Yet, India were able to restrict Sri Lanka to 137/6 in 20 overs.
India, too, dropped a few easy catches, but thanks to Sri Lanka’s dismal batting, it didn’t matter.
In all fairness, the Sri Lankans had little time to settle down as their five-match T20I series in Australia ended only last Sunday. But one expected at least a little bit of fight from the visitors in conditions not completely alien to them.
Earlier, Iyer, batting at No.3 — a slot ahead of his usual position of No.4 — since Ruturaj Gaikwad was ruled out (owing to pain in his right wrist), made a valuable contribution with his unbeaten knock. Captain Rohit Sharma too did well with his 44 after Sri Lanka won the toss and put India in.
India’s innings was all about some brilliant strokeplay by Ishan. The 23-year-old took little time to outscore the skipper and it was mainly due to the left-handed batsman that India got going inside the Powerplay and raced to 98 without loss at the halfway stage of their innings.
Rohit, on the other hand, looked happy playing second fiddle. The scenario, however, could have been a little bit better for Sri Lanka had Janith Liyanage not grassed the mis-hit from Ishan off leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay. Ishan was on 43 then and following that reprieve, went on torment the Sri Lankans further.
Vandersay was again the unlucky bowler later when Ishan, on 67, bottom-edged one, but wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal’s gloves were nowhere near the ball.
One of Ishan’s strengths is to hit in the mid-wicket and square-leg region, but on most occasions, that entire area was left vacant much to the delight of the batsman. Equally poor was the visitors’ bowling.
