Sri Lanka has got off to a flying start in the 2nd T20 international being played at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on the back of a quickfire 50 from Kusal Mendis. Mendis bludgeoned his way to a 27-ball half-century to give his team a perfect start on a good pitch. He hit 4 sixes and 3 boundaries to bring up a quickfire fifty.
It all started in the second over of Sri Lanka’s inning bowled by Arshdeep Singh. What started as a good over went bizarre as Arshdeep bowled 3 no-balls. Three free hits allowed Mendis to open up and he utilized the free hits to pump the scorecard of his team. That over went for 19 runs.
After Arshdeep’s over, Mendis targeted Shivam Mavi and collected 15 runs from his over. Mavi was also bowled a no-ball. By the end of the powerplay, Sri Lanka had 55 runs on the board with all the wickets intact.
The last 2 overs of the powerplay were bowled by Axar and Chahal and they gave away 8 runs in total. However, the damage was done already by then. Mendis brought up his half-century in the second ball of the 8th over when he slashed a pacy delivery from Umran Malik over third-man for a six.
At the time of publishing, Sri Lanka had lost 2 quick wickets and their score read 89 for 2 in 10 overs. Chahal picked up the prized scalp of Mendis and Umran castled Rajapaksa with a pacy delivery.