India completed a dominant win over Sri Lanka in the second T20I at Indore and have gone 1-0 up in the 3-match series. The visitors now need to win final in order to draw level after the first match was washed out. It was a win in which the Indian bowlers were at their best and the finishing kick was applied by the batsmen.
KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, and Virat Kohli starred with the bat as the hosts chased down the target of 143 with minimum fuss. The skipper started this new year by reaching another milestone – Kohli is now the fastest batsman to complete 1,000 T20I runs as a captain. He overtook Faf du Plessis to register this record. Kohli got to 1000 runs in 30 runs, thus beating the South African skipper, who reached this milestone in 31 innings.
Navdeep Saini and Shardul Thakur were impressive with the ball as they kept picking up wickets at regular intervals to never allow Sri Lanka to break away. The skipper praised the effort of his younger bowlers and labelled it as a good sign for the side going forward.
“This was a clinical performance, and that’s how we want to build on each series. We have ticked a few more boxes this time. Brilliant from Navdeep. He has done well in ODI cricket, and he’s bowling well in T20s, with experienced guys like Jasprit, Bhuvi and Shardul. It’s a really good sign for the team. It’s good to have Jasprit back again. He was really keen to bowl again, and his pace was up again,” Kohli said after the win.
“We kept picking wickets, and we didn’t let them to 170-175, which I thought would have been a par score. (On choice of number three) The thought process is simple – we need to see guys step up, win matches under pressure. Me going in at 4 helps us too, like I did at Wankhede [against West Indies]. At the same time, give young players a chance,” he further added.
