Toss
Sri Lanka Won the toss and decided to field first
India playing 11: Shikhar Dhawan (c), Prithvi Shaw, Ishan Kishan (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Sanju Samson, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Deepak Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Varun Chakravarthy
* Prithvi Shaw and Varun Chakravarthy were on debut
Sri Lanka playing 11: Avishka Fernando, Minod Bhanuka (wk), Dhananjaya de Silva, Charith Asalanka, Dasun Shanaka (c), Ashen Bandara, Wanindu Hasaranga, Chamika Karunaratne, Isuru Udana, Akila Dananjaya, Dushmantha Chameera
* Charith Asalanka and Chamika Karunaratne were on debut
Indian Innings
Prithvi Shaw while facing the first ball, started the Indian innings (and his T20I Career) with a golden duck. Shikhar Dhawan and Sanju Samson ensured they face no further damage in the powerplay, starting watchfully with the run rate hovering around 7 an over. Dhawan and Samson took their stand to 50 runs in just 33 balls and just when Samson looked very comfortable at the crease, he lost his wicket on the first ball after the powerplay, as Hasaranga picked a wicket off his very first delivery.
Once again, it was Suryakumar Yadav, as it has often happened on this tour, who took the responsibility to take the inning forward. With the help of 6 fours and a six, this pair took India to 113 by the end of the 14th over. India were looking at 175 as a potential score from here but like the first 2 wickets, the 3rd wicket too came on the first ball of the over when the skipper was caught at deep square leg.
Suraykumar soon followed Shikhar after reaching his 2nd T20I Half-Century in just his 3rd inning. They couldn’t capitalize in the death despite having Hardik, Krunal and Ishan batting during this period as India scored just 37 runs in 29 balls post Yadav’s dismissal and as a result India could post a total of just 164 runs.
Sri Lankan Innings
Sri Lanka had an aggressive start by scoring 20 runs in the first 2 overs but Krunal Pandya’s introduction in the 3rd over worked for India as he picked up Minod Bhanuka’s Wicket. Sri Lankan inning slowed down with his wicket as despite such an aggresive start they could score just 46 runs in the powerplay. Very soon both the set batsmen departed after the end of powerplay.
Charith Asalanka and Ashen Bandara tried rebuilding but failed to accelerate. Their partnership broke at the score of 90 at the end of the 13th over when Sri Lanka needed 75 in the last 7 overs after which Sri Lanka failed to build partnerships.
With the departure of Asalanka, Sri Lanka's highest scorer, Chahar opened the door for an ugly collapse as he dismissed Hasaranga for a duck in the same over. Bhuvneshwar Kumar did the finishing act by picking 3 of the final 4 wickets as Sri Lanka were bowled out for just 126 in 18.3 overs. The last 6 wickets fell for 15 runs as Sri Lanka lost the 1st T20I by 38 runs, a match they were looking set to win at one point in time.
Fun Facts
This was the first time a team won while defending a total on this tour as all the 3 ODIs ended with the chasing side winning the game.
Yadav formed a 50 run partnership with Dhawan in 33 balls. Interestingly, he himself reached his personal 50 too in the similar number of deliveries.
The wicketkeepers of the either side– Ishan Kishan (20 off 14) and Minod Bhanuka (10 off 7) had exactly the same strike rate of 142.85.
Prithvi Shaw became just the 2nd Indian opener to start his T20I career with a golden duck with the first being KL Rahul.
