'This is the Template We Want to Go Ahead With': 'Happy' Captain Suryakumar Proud of His Boys over Series Win

Indian men’s cricket team skipper Suryakumar Yadav was happy with his side’s performance after beating Sri Lanka by seven wickets, via the DLS method, in a rain-affected second T20I of the three-match series to take an unassailable 2-0 lead at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

SKY said he had a talk with the team before the start of the series about what brand of cricket they want to play and even with a shortened game, they wanted to go with the attacking template.

“We spoke about this before the start of the tournament – what brand of cricket we want to play. This is the template we want to go ahead with,” Suryakumar Yadav said at the post-match presentation after the win.

With the shortened game, Suryakumar said that with anything around 160 would have been a challenging total considering the weather conditions, adding that the rain helped them.

“With the weather around, anything below 160 would have been nice. Rain helped us,” he said.

The Indian cricket team captain appreciated his side’s batting and said that he is happy that they displayed a lot of character in tough situations.

“The way the boys batted was wonderful. We’ll sit and decide (when asked if they’ll test their bench strength). Very happy for the boys. Showed a lot of character in tough situations,” he said.

Chasing a revised target of 78 in eight overs, skipper SKY (26, 12b, 4×4, 1×6) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (30, 15b, 3×4, 2×6) batted well as India romped home in 6.3 overs under DLS method.

Earlier, Kusal Perera made an aggressive fifty but leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi struck three crucial blows as India restricted Sri Lanka to a below-par 161 for nine before rain interrupted India’s chase at 6 for no loss in 0.3 overs.

Perera (53, 34b, 6×4, 2×6) led Lanka’s charge in the company of Pathum Nissanka (32, 24b, 5×4).

But Bishnoi (3/26) took three wickets, two in as many balls, as India snapped the hosts’ charge in the middle and end overs.

(With inputs from Agencies)