File photo of Shubman Gill© AFP
Indian cricket team star batter Shubman Gill missed the second T20I encounter against Sri Lanka due to neck spasm on Sunday. Sanju Samson was included in the playing XI in place of Gill and Suryakumar confirmed the reason behind Gill's absence at the toss. "Gill misses out as he woke up with a neck spasm, Samson comes in," Indian cricket team captain Suryakumar Yadav said. Sanju failed to take advantage of the chance as he was dismissed for a duck by spinner Maheesh Theekshana.
Yashasvi Jaiswal and skipper Suryakumar Yadav displayed their wide array of strokes as India took an unassailable 2-0 lead, winning the rain-curtailed second T20I by seven wickets with nine balls to spare.
Head coach Gautam Gambhir and new captain Suryakumar couldn't have asked for a better start to their new roles as the Indian team played like true T20 World Champions outplaying Sri Lanka in all departments.
Despite Shubman Gill's absence due to neck spasm and another failure in the format for the ever-hyped Sanju Samson (0), Jaiswal (30 off 15 balls) and Suryakumar (26 off 12 balls) didn't even break a sweat in their short but tricky chase of 78 in 8 overs after another fine effort by bowlers had restricted Sri Lanka to 161 for 9.
Just when Maheesh Theekshana looked dangerous getting Samson with a carrom ball and squaring up Surya with a doosra, the Mumbai duo decided to bring the sweep shot -- both conventional and reverse -- out of the closet.
The strategy was to not allow Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga's deliveries to deviate off the surface and create confusion.
Instead, the India batters used their reach to good effect and smother the turn. They added 39 in 3.1 overs and by the time Surya and Jaiswal were dismissed, they had hit seven fours and three sixes between them.
It was left to Hardik Pandya (22 not out off 9 balls) and Rishabh Pant (2 not out) to complete the formalities in 6.3 overs and render the final match of the series on Tuesday inconsequential.
Earlier, Surya called right and his bowlers did a repeat act on successive days with the home team losing as many as seven wickets for 31 runs in their last 30 balls after being comfortably placed at 130 for 2 in 15 overs.
Despite scoring 80 in the first 10 overs and in a position to accelerate, Charith Asalanka's side lost its way, managing just 81 runs in the back-10 as Pandya's (2/23 in 2 overs) change of pace and Ravi Bishnoi's (3/26 in 4 overs) fast googlies did the trick.
Axar Patel and Arshdeep Singh also chipped in with two wickets each.
(With PTI inputs)