4 things that Sri Lanka did right in the 1st T20I against India 

Sri Lanka won the first T20I of the Nidahas Trophy quite convincingly, courtesy of a great knock by Kusal Perera, who took the game away from the visitors in the first six overs itself.

On a flat deck at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, the Men in Blue posted a decent total of 174 on the board and thus, would have fancied their chances at the halfway mark. Dhawan continued his good form from the South Africa series and played a belligerent knock of 90. He smashed the bowlers all around the park and made sure that India posted a decent total on the board.

The Lankans had a great start to their innings with Kusal Perera going after everything. The runs came at a rate on knots, and the game went totally in the favour of the hosts before Rohit Sharma could even react to the situation. The Indian skipper looked helpless in the middle as runs leaked from both the ends and the inexperienced bowlers had no answer to Perera's big hitting.

The visitors made some late strikes to get back into the game, but with the required run-rate around six runs an over, there was no pressure on the lower middle order, and the hosts went on to win the game by five wickets.

The Sri Lankan team, under the newly appointed coach, Chandika Hathurusingha, certainly looked a different unit compared to the last time they played against India in November last year. Hathurusingha is someone who is known to inject a lot of positivity inside the players, and he inspires them to play attacking cricket. After serving the Bangladesh cricket team for 3 years, he'll now be looking forward to having a good run with the Lankans as well.

Let's take a look at the things that Sri Lanka did right in the first T20I:

# Wicket Taking Mindset

Dushmantha Chameera and Nuwan Pradeep bowled a superb spell with the new ball, getting rid of Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina up front, which restrained the Indians from taking full advantage of the field restrictions. Jeevan Mendis took a magnificent catch at mid-off, running backwards, to dismiss skipper Rohit Sharma, who wanted to clear the field and break the shackles.

It was a bit of a double bluff for Raina as the Lankans had a leg gully as well as a deep backward square-leg for him. Raina made room for himself towards the off-side, anticipating a bouncer, and Pradeep outsmarted him by bowling one right at the stumps, thus breaking the wood work. These two early wickets made India grind to some extent, instead of going big from the very beginning.

#3 Smart bowling changes

It turned out to be a good day in the field for the Lankan skipper, Dinesh Chandimal, as he made some smart bowling changes, and led the team from the front. He was quick on his feet and made sure that the left-handers faced the bulk of the off-spinners, as it is not easy to hit against the turn into the leg-side boundary.

The move to bring Danushka Gunathilaka towards the end of the innings when Rishabh Pant was batting turned out to be a masterstroke from the skipper. The part-timer ended up bowling 3 overs for just 16 runs, and picked up the crucial wicket of Dhawan when he was batting on 90.

Pant struggled against the part-timer and even failed to rotate the strike, thus consuming a lot of deliveries. At one stage, India was looking good to reach something around the 190 run mark, but this spell from Danushka changed the course of the game and took the momentum away from the visitors.

#2 Brilliant death bowling

The Sri Lankan death bowlers were just brilliant with their line and length, and hardly gave any room to the batsmen to free their arms. The wide yorker strategy that failed terribly when they toured India three months back was not used at all.

Instead, almost everything was at the blockhole, thus giving no room to the batsmen. The utilisation of off-spinners towards the back end of the innings also paid a lot of dividends.

Pant was having a swing at everything, but couldn't get his timing right due to some clever bowling towards the death.

The Lankan bowlers didn't pitch any of the deliveries in his half, and he struggled to get bat to ball. Dhawan was kept away from the strike for a long time, and the visitors were well short of the 190 run mark, which was definitely on at one stage.

#1 Attacking batting during the field restrictions

While chasing 175, the hosts lost the wicket of Kusal Mendis in the second over itself, but that didn't stop the new batsman, Kusal Perera, from going after the bowling straight away.

He went after everything during the field restrictions, and it was raining fours and sixes. A dot ball or a single was a rare sight, and in one over, Shardul Thakur went for 27 runs, which turned out to be the second most expensive over bowled by an Indian bowler in the shortest format of the game.

The left-hander made a mockery of the big total of 174 and helped his side chase it with ease, as they won the match in the 19th over itself.