Pune : A brilliant bowling display from Kasun Rajitha and Dasun Chanaka paved the way for an emphatic 5 wicket win for Sri Lanka against India in the first T20I here at Pune . The hosts were bundled out for their second lowest total at home as the men in blue could only manage to score 101 runs . Kasun Rajitha and Dasun Shanaka picked up three wickets each . In reply a defiant knock by Dinesh Chandimal guided Sri Lanka to a five-wicket win.
Ashish Nehra and Ravichandran Ashwin gave India some hope but that wasn’t enough from stopping the visitors taking a 1-0 lead in the three match T20I series .
Put into bat on a lively track, which had fair amount of bounce and seam movement, India were skittled out for a paltry 101 in 18.5 overs with rookie pace trio of Kasun Rajitha (3/29), Dashun Shanaka (3/16) and Dushmantha Chameera (2/14) doing bulk of the damage.
Sri Lanka reached the target with two overs to spare. Senior players Dinesh Chandimal (35) and Chamara Kapugedara (25) made useful contributions.
It turned out to be a blow for Mahendra Singh Dhoni after the team won 3-0 in the series Down Under to achieve the top rank in ICC table for shortest format.
If Rajitha blew away the top-order, it was Shanaka and Chameera, who decimated the middle and lower-order with only Ravichandran Ashwin with his unbeaten 31 helping home team cross the three-figure.
Such was the abject surrender by the Indian batsmen in the wake of extra bounce and moving deliveries that only Yuvraj Singh (10) and Suresh Raina (20) reached the double figures apart from Ashwin.
When Sri Lanka batted, they lost a few wickets in between but the target was too small to defend as the 39-run stand between skipper Chandimal and Kapugedara turned out to be a clincher. Milinda Siriwardana struck 21 off 14 balls as he finished the match with a flourish hitting Jasprit Bumrah for a six and a boundary.
There was no dearth of effort from the Indian bowlers with Ashish Nehra (2/21 in 3 overs) and Ashwin (2/13 in 3 overs) got a couple of wickets each but it was the failure of the batsmen that hurt India the most.