Sanju dismissed for golden duck; India win series by beating Sri Lanka by seven wickets

PALLAKELE: India won the ongoing Twenty20I series against Sri Lanka by winning the first two matches of the three-match series. India won the rain-affected second match of the series by seven wickets with 1.3 overs remaining. However, Malayali player Sanju Samson was dismissed for a golden duck, much to the dismay of his legion of fans.

Score: Sri Lanka 161-9 (20 overs) India 81-3 (6.3)

India won the toss and chose to bowl first, allowing the host to initially dominate by scoring 80/2 in the first 10 overs. However, the Indian bowlers made a strong comeback and limitted the hosts to 161/9 in 20 overs. Kusal Perera was Sri Lanka's top scorer with 53 off 34 balls. For India, Ravi Bishnoi picked up three wickets, while Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya took two wickets each.

However, rain played spoilsport just three balls into the Indian innings. With the match getting suspended for around 1 hour due to the rain, India's target was revised to 78 runs from 8 overs. Sanju, who came in for an injured Shubman Gill, was dismissed in the very first ball by Lankan spinner Maheesh Theekshana. However, skipper Suryakumar Yadav (26 off 12) and opener Yashaswi Jaiswal (30 off 15) brought India back into the game. All-rounder Hardik Pandya (22 off 9) also joined the party and hit the winning runs for India. Theekshana, Matheesha Pathirana and Wanindu Hasaranga took one wicket each for Sri Lanka.