Chiranjibip

Cuttack: This Indian victory is even tastier than Cuttack-famous Dahibara-Aludum for the cricket fans. The 45000 odd crowd at Barabati had a gala time as in-form Indian team thrashed Sri Lanka by a huge margin of 93 runs in the first of the three-match T20I series. This is India’s biggest win in T20 internationals.

Chasing a big target of 181 in 20 overs, the Lankans started off on a poor note as Jaydev Unadkat sent Niroshan Dickwella back into the hut for 13 in the second over of the innings. Although experienced Upul Tharanga tried to score runs at a brisk rate, he was picked up by Yuzvendra Chahal for 23 as MS Dhoni took a sharp catch down the legside.

Chahal continued his fascinating stint with the ball by getting the wicket of Angelo Mathews and in association with Dhoni, he got rid of Asela Gunaratne and Thisara Perera. Sri Lanka kept on losing wickets in the middle and the Barabati crowd continued to dance to popular Odia item numbers in joy.

None of the Lankan batsmen could impress with their performance as they were eventually bowled out for a paltry score of 87 in 16 overs. Yuzvendra Chahal and Hardik Pandya pocketed four and three respectively while Kuldeep Yadav got two important wickets. Left arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat also got one for the home side.

Earlier in the evening, Thisara Perera won the toss and invited India to bat first in front of a packed house at the historic venue. Lokesh Rahul and Rohit Sharma provided India a decent start as they managed to add 38 runs in first five overs utilising the powerplay period. Rohit was dismissed by Angelo Mathews for 17 as he handed over a catch to Dushmantha Chameera at mid on.

Making his comeback in limited overs cricket Lokesh Rahul carried on really well as he scored his second T20I fifty after surviving a scare by successfully reviewing an LBW decision in the seventh over. Shreyas Iyer batting at number 3 also managed to score 24 off 20 balls.

India struggled a bit from 11th to 16th over and lost the wickets of both Iyer and Rahul. Dhoni came out to bat after the dismissal of Iyer and he was joined by Karnataka youngster Manish Pandey after Rahul got out to a slower ball from Perera for 61 (48). Rahul’s knock was studded by 7 fours and one hit over the ropes.

Dhoni and Pandey took the attack into the Lankan camp by scoring 68 off last 34 balls together and the crowd went berserk seeing both of them bat. Both Dhoni and Pandeyremained remained unbeaten for 39 and 32 respectively. Dhoni struck just one six while Pandey hit a couple of them. Angelo Mathews, Nuwan Pradeep and Thisara Perera scalped one wicket each for the visitors.

Yuzvendra Chahal was awarded Man of the Match for his splendid bowling figures of 4/23 in his quota of four overs.

This was the first such occasion when Barabati hosted two international cricket games in a calendar year and as usual the crowd at the venue was cheering loud. An ODI between India and England was played here in the month of January and India won that nail-biting thriller with Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni scoring hundreds.

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