SL Vs IND – Suryakumar Yadav’s blitzkrieg puts India on driver’s seat after first innings

On his full-time captaincy debut, Suryakumar Yadav wreaked havoc as he smashed 58 runs off just 26 deliveries. Under Rohit Sharma, India started playing an aggressive brand of cricket in white-ball cricket and it looks like, nothing has changed under the new leadership. Head coach Gautam Gambhir, who recently helped Kolkata Knight Riders win IPL 2024, knows the importance of playing aggressively and the players performed to the expectations.

Openers Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal set the platform for Suryakumar to come and take on the bowlers right away. The pair of Gill and Jaiswal managed to stitch a 76-run partnership – all were scored in the powerplay, which gave India a massive advantage. Notably, Jaiswal smashed 40 runs off 21 deliveries while Gill hit 34 runs off 16 deliveries. After their dismissals, the Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar show began.

Pant played the role of an anchor – similar to what Virat Kohli used to do in T20Is. Suryakumar, on the other hand, showed no mercy to the bowlers and hit boundaries for fun. He smacked eight boundaries and two sixes, giving India the upper hand. Eventually, Matheesha Pathirana got the better of him but his knock gave the right momentum to the Men in Blue, which Pant later capitalized.

The 26-year-old keeper-batter understood the task and played accordingly. In his last 13 balls, Pant made 29 runs as India posted 213 runs in the first innings. Pant would be disappointed with himself for not being able to finish things off as he departed in the 19th over. The goal after that was to finish strongly and that’s where India struggled. Hardik Pandya, Riyan Parag and Rinku Singh failed to contribute much while batting at number eight, Axar Patel looked in good touch.

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Pathirana’s bowling brilliance helped Sri Lanka stop India from going beyond 225 runs total

Matheesha Pathirana had an outstanding evening for Sri Lanka, as he picked up four wickets. On a surface that hugely favoured the batters, the pacer would be happy with his performance but would also hope to cut down on economy, which was 10 in the first T20I.