“We were fortunate that there was no dew,” remarked Suryakumar Yadav after India’s triumph against Sri Lanka in the first T20I

Suryakumar Yadav, the recently named captain of India, praised the Sri Lankan players for their excellent second-inning batting performance. Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis, who were chasing 214 runs, were excellent and had a chance to win, but the Indian bowlers made the correct move at the right moment to limit the hosts to 170 runs.

Suryakumar Yadav said after the game that the Men in Blue knew how the pitch would play that night and that they were fortunate not to have dew in the second innings.

Sri Lanka appeared to be the favourites after a brilliant opening partnership with the bat, but Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya performed admirably in the middle overs to get India back into the match. Later, the squad took a 1-0 lead in the series thanks to swift wickets taken by Arshdeep Singh and Riyan Parag.

It was a blessing that there was no dew. Our World Cup performance served as a reminder that the game was still too far away. From the first ball, they were playing a good kind of cricket. They deserve praise for maintaining the tempo. We are aware of the wicket’s nighttime dynamics,” Suryakumar was cited by NDTV.

Charith Asalanka, the captain of Sri Lanka, was dissatisfied with the middle order’s batting performance in the opening T20I. To keep Sri Lanka in the game, openers Nissanka and Mendis scored 79 and 45 runs, respectively. However, the middle order eventually faltered, leading to a crushing loss.

They were “not up to the mark” with the ball on the powerplay, according to the captain, but they mounted a formidable comeback in the second half. Despite a lacklustre performance in the opening Twenty20 International of the series, he also disclosed that the management will not be changing the middle order.

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Although we didn’t perform well in the powerplay, we made a good comeback later on. We performed well at a point when we believed they might reach 240. We could have performed better, therefore we were a little let down by the middle-order batsman’s performance. According to Asalanka, “This is the way we should go in the future; it’s just an experiment.”