New captain Suryakumar helps India to 1-0 lead

It was a winning start for India's new captain-coach duo in Pallekele, with Suryakumar leading from the front with a blistering 22-ball fifty in India's 43-run win in the first T20I.

Even with 213 runs on the board, the Indian bowlers looked up against it especially when Pathum Nissanka was out there in the middle, but a stunning collapse of 9 for 30 from Sri Lanka gave the visitors a comfortable win in the end. Riyan Parag, India's sixth bowler on the night, needed to bowl only 8 balls and finished with figures of 3 for 5.

What was the difference between the sides?

It was perhaps how relentless India were with their attacking batting after being put in to bat. What if Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal looked good for half-centuries, both the openers batted at a strike-rate of 200 and stitched the perfect camoes, playing to the demands of modern times and delivering exactly the kind of start that India would have expected of them. And once they were done, Suryakumar took matters in his own hands and made the middle overs count, which meant that Matheesha Pathirana's four-wicket assault in the death overs was safely accounted for. And then there was also this small matter of fielding lapses from Sri Lanka, in both catching and ground fielding, which allowed India to breath easy every time they were under the pump.

INDIA

PowerPlay: A fast start for India

Phase score: 74/1 [13x4s, 3x6s]

India, the reigning T20 World Cup champions, began this new cycle with an opener who watched the World Cup from the bench and another who didn't make the squad. But such is the depth of Indian cricket that Jaiswal and Gill barely broke a sweat while adding 74 runs in the first six overs, India's highest PowerPlay score this year and the highest ever against Sri Lanka. Things in fact had started looking up for India as early as the first ball of the innings, which Jaiswal dispatched for a boundary with a pick-up pull shot. The left-hander was adept against pace and spin, playing the offbreaks from Maheesh Theekshana with just as much ease. Gill, it must be said, matched his partner shot for shot, and even pulled a six off his front foot before a slower ball accounted for him. But the job was done.

Middle overs: The Suryakumar show

Phase score: 85/1 [9x4s, 2x6s]

Suryakumar's batting in his first innings as full-time T20I captain was always going to be seen as a template for his team, and the 33-year-old played exactly like himself, sweeping, shuffling and peppering the area behind square on the legside with pick-up shots en route to his 22-ball fifty, his second-fastest in the format. Suryakumar hit 8 fours and 2 sixes, one of the maximums coming over long leg against the menacing Pathirana. The fast bowler had his revenge in his next over with a fast, full LBW-eliciting delivery but what the Indian captain's 26-ball 58 had done was not allow India to linger over Yashasvi's dismissal first ball after the PowerPlay, the young opener finding Wanindu Hasaranga's well-disguised googly too hot to handle. The legspinner was the pick of the bowlers in his phase of play, bowling his quota of four overs for only 28 runs in a high-scoring innings.

Death overs: India past 200 despite Pathirana's yorkers

Phase score: 54/4 [7x4s, 2x6s]

Come the final lap, India wanted Rishabh Pant to get going, the batter hitherto having struggled during his run-a-ball 20. He cut loose with a 6 and a 4 against Asitha Fernando and looked set for some more but Pathirana's exploits at the other end impeded him and India's run-scoring in the slog overs. Hardik Pandya, having walked out ahead of Riyan Parag and Rinku Singh, couldn't quite keep out a 151 km/hr yorker from Pathirana, something that came India's way plenty in the remainder of the innings, one of which pinned Parag in front and another off-pace variety that bowled Pant. Axar Patel hit a six off the final ball to take India to 213, a score that they would have taken after losing the toss. But on the other side, they did look good for 240, something that opposition captain Asalanka admitted after the match.

SRI LANKA

PowerPlay: Sri Lanka off to a flier

Phase score: 55/0 [7x4s, 2x6s]

Sri Lanka might not have been as quick in the first six overs but they ensured that India didn't get an early breakthrough. Nissanka in particular took the attack to the visitors, whistling off the chase with back-to-back boundaries in the opening over and then later laying into Mohammed Siraj with two sixes in the space of three balls. Axar Patel and Ravi Bishnoi combined to bowl half the PowerPlay overs but didn't quite find the purchase that Hasaranga did earlier in the match.

Middle overs: Nissanka too good for India

Phase score: 94/3 [10x4s, 3x6s]

Sri Lanka bossed the middle overs despite losing three wickets, two of them in the final over of this phase. With India laying both their frontline spin cards on the table in the PowerPlay itself, the visitors had little to fall back upon in the middle overs. Pandya started with a short-wide delivery that was dispatched for four and came in for some punishment throughout his spell of 4-0-41-0. It was Arshdeep Singh who eventually broke the 84-run opening stand by deceiving Kusal Mendis with a knuckle ball. The ordeal though didn't end there for India who were at the receiving end of another solid partnership, with Nissanka and Mendis adding a quick-fire 46 runs. At 140/1 after 14 overs, the hosts looked in absolute control of the match but a double strike from Axar Patel in the 15th over saw the back of top-scorer Nissanka and Kusal Perera and provided a major inflection point in the innings.

Death overs: Sri Lanka implode

Phase score: 21/7 [3x4s,0x6s]

Sri Lanka unravelled from 140/1 to 149/4 and then to 170 all out, losing 9 wickets for 30 runs in the space of 31 balls. Charith Asalanka was bowled by a Bishnoi googly, Dasun Shanaka was run out without facing a ball, Kamindu Mendis was bowled by Parag and Hasaranga was caught according to the plan at mid-on. It was only a matter of time for India now. Parag added the wickets of Theekshana and Madushanka, finishing with figures of 3 for 5 and helping India bowl Sri Lanka out without four balls to spare.

Brief Scores: India 213/7 (Yadav 58, Pant 49; Pathirana 4-40) beat Sri Lanka 170 all out in 19.2 overs (Nissanka 79, Kusal 45; Parag 3-5, Arshdeep 2-24, Patel 2-38) by 43 runs