Chahal, KL Rahul Shines as India Register their Biggest T20I Victory

KL Rahul hit a classy half-century as India continued their domination over Sri Lanka to register a massive 93-run win, their biggest victory in T20 Internationals, on Wednesday.

Opening the batting, Rahul struck a quick 61 off 48 balls before leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (4/23) triggered Sri Lanka’s collapse to register the convincing win in the first T20 International of the three-match series.

Yuzvendra Chahal spun a web around the Sri Lankan batsmen as India coasted home and recorded a comfortable 93-run win over the Lankans in the first T20I at Cuttack. This is India’s biggest victory in T20Is and Sri Lanka’s biggest loss.

Chahal recorded figures of 4/23, breaking the back of Sri Lankan batting as he accounted for Upul Tharanga, Angelo Mathews, Asela Gunaratne and Dasun Shanaka.

He was aided by his partner in crime, Kuldeep Yadav who ended with figures of 2/18, as Sri Lanka were never allowed to settle in the chase of 181.

In form Shreyas Iyer joined Rahul in the middle but struggled to get going. However, Rahul found his timing and did most of the damage as the two put 63 runs together for the second-wicket.

Sent into bat, Rahul’s classy fifty and some sensible batting from Mahendra Singh Dhoni (39 not out) and Manish Pandey (32 not out) powered India to a challenging 180 for three.

Playing his first match since his T20I debut in June 2016, left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat (1/7) returned to the side with elan, giving India the breakthrough in the second over.

Rohit Sharma became the second Indian to reach 1500 T20 runs after Virat Kohli.