On July 29, 2021, Colombo will be the venue of Sri Lanka vs India, the 3rd T20I of a three-match series on the India tour of Sri Lanka. We preview the game and make our Sri Lanka vs India Prediction.
Match Predictions
Last Meeting
The second T20 between Sri Lanka and India was postponed by a day after Krunal Pandya tested positive for covid-19. The match took place eventually on 28 July. India had five debutants, after several players identified as close contacts of Krunal Pandya were made to isolate.
Batting first, India got off to a steady start with a 49-run opening stand in 6.6 overs between Dhawan and Gaikwad. But on a slow wicket, India failed to accelerate and finished with a modest 132/5 in their allotted overs. Skipper Dhawan top scored with 40 from 42 balls, while Devdutt Padikkal made 29 from 23 and Gaikwad scored 21 from 18. Akila Dhananjaya (2/29) was Sri Lanka’s best bowler while Chameera, Hasaranga, and Shanaka took a wicket each.
Defending 133 was never going to be easy but India did well to restrict Sri Lanka to 4 for 66 in the 12th over. But a quickfire partnership of 28 runs took Sri Lanka to 94/5 in 15 overs, bringing the asking rate down to less than eight runs per over. In a tense finish, Sri Lanka managed to scale the target with two balls and four wickets to spare. Dhananjaya de Silva was the top scorer with 40 off 34 balls, while Minod Bhanuka made 36 from 31. Kuldeep Yadav (2/30) was India’s most successful bowler, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Chetan Sakaria, Varun Chakravarthy, and Rahul Chahar took a wicket each.
Head-to-Head
India have registered a 3-1 h2h advantage in the last 5 matches between the sides, with one match ended without result.
Likely XIs
India: Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shikhar Dhawan, Devdutt Padikkal, Sanju Samson, Nitish Rana, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Chetan Sakariya, Varun Chakravarthy
Sri Lanka: Avishka Fernando, Minod Bhanuka, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dasun Shanaka, Dhananjaya De Silva, Wanindu Hasaranga, Ramesh Mendis, Chamika Karunaratne, Isuru Udana, Akila Dananjaya, Dushmantha Chameera