India won their seventh T20I series at home after routing Sri Lanka in an incredible chase at Dharamshala on Saturday, 26 February. Returning Ravindra Jadeja and Shreyas Iyer joined hands to score 58* off just 26 balls to see India through the chase of 184 runs with 17 balls remaining.
India gave an example of their pace hitting reserves with Iyer, Jadeja and even Sanju Samson making the boundary look incredibly small at the Himachal stadium - hitting 8 sixes between themselves.
At the break, it looked like Sri Lanka had done enough to give India a run for their money and early wickets of Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan only went on to strengthen their belief. However, it lasted for very little time after the introduction of Shreyas Iyer in the batting line up - a player who does not find a regular place in the Indian starting XI, despite being the captain of an IPL franchise.
Despite not finding support in Sanju Samson, who was given a shoe in, Iyer found his range early to make a compelling case for himself in the starting XI. Iyer was up at 64 off 36 in the 13th over of the game before Samson finally took off against Lahiru Kumara. Samson - struggling at 17 off 19 balls at that point went 4,6,6,0,6 to rip the Sri Lanka pacer a new one before getting out in the last ball of the over.
By the time he got out, he had picked himself up to 39 off 25, but it is arguable that if it was enough to impress the Indian think tank to put himself in the final squad for the T20 World Cup in Australia.
If 128/3 had not done the trick in the 13th over, the promotion of Ravindra Jadeja over Venkatesh Iyer turned out to be the final nail in the coffin for the Island nation.
Returning from injury, Jadeja scored 45 off 18 balls to finish the game in 17.1 overs.
Earlier in the day, Pathum Nissanka and Dasun Shanaka led the Sri Lankan fightback against the brilliance of Jasprit Bumrah. Sri Lanka - who have not been in the best of forms with the bat off late once again started off in a struggling manner. They were rescued by the brilliance of Nissanka who grew into the game and attacked the likes of Harshal Patel and Ravindra Jadeja. The last five overs of the first innings were exceptional for Sri Lanka as they scored 80 runs owing to Shanaka’s power hitting capabilities. But as it would turn out, the Indian batting line-up would end up being too strong for Sri Lanka to handle.
Shreyas Iyer’s innings would take away the game from the visitors after they would fail to capitalise on their exceptional start in the powerplay.
As things stand, India have won their 7th straight T20I series at home and are on course with their experiments in the run up to the T20 World Cup. They have already tested out the likes of Harshal Patel in powerplay overs, given Sanju Samson a shot in the top order and have seen the likes of Bumrah and Jadeja who are returning after their break. While everything has not been a success, India are no doubt trying to work out all possibilities for the team to be prepared in drastic situations.
India will now move on to the final T20I with a few more experiments in mind while Sri Lanka will look to prevent a whitewash against their mighty neighbours.