Picture Credit: Twitter
After registering a 2-1 series win in ODIs, India continued their dominance over Sri Lanka as they secured another comfortable victory against the home side in the 1st T20I on Sunday. After being put to bat first, the Men in Blue went on to post a total of 164/5 in 20 overs. Suryakumar Yadav (50 off 34) and Shikhar Dhawan (46 off 36) made vital contributions as the stage was set for a close run chase in Colombo.
However, the Indian bowlers displayed their class once again as Sri Lanka fell 38 runs short of the target in the end, handing Shikhar Dhawan's side a 1-0 lead in the 3-match series. While Bhuvneshwar Kumar scalped four wickets, Deepak Chahar continued his impressive form and ended the match with figures of 2/24 in 3 overs. While his bowling was quite accurate, he also did something which would make Ravichandran Ashwin very proud of him.
Quite cheeky from Deepak Chahar
It was the 16th over of the match and captain Shikhar Dhawan had brought pacer Deepak Chahar back into the attack. Sri Lanka needed 58 runs from 30 balls and the match could have gone either way at that point of time. India needed Chahar to get a crucial breakthrough to put brakes on Sri Lanka's scoring rate. As he ran to bowl the first delivery, the 28-year-old started playing a bit of mind games as well to put the opponents under a bit of pressure.
While bowling to Dasun Shanaka, Chahar seemed to have lost his run-up as he pulled off from releasing the delivery at the last moment. As he turned to walk back, he spotted non-striker Charith Asilanka standing out of the crease. This is when the Indian pacer acted as if he was throwing the ball back at the stumps, hilariously giving Asalanka a Mankad warning.
Watch the video here:
Chahar turns the match in India's favour
Although nothing more happened at that moment, the slight antics by Chahar seemed to have caught Asalanka (44 off 26) off the guard as the left-handed batsman played a ball straight in the hands of Prithvi Shaw three deliveries later. Chahar then also dismissed Wanindu Hasaranga to completely turn the tide, shifting the match in India's favour.