Hardik Pandya gave a cold stare to Kusal Perera after dismissing him on the sixth delivery of the 16th over. He has made a habit of such silent celebrations and churned out a fresh one in the second T20I.

Hardik bowled an off-pace back of a length delivery to Kusal, who cleared his front leg and went for a heave on the leg-side region. However, Rinku Singh, patrolling the area, bent forward and took a fine catch at the deep square leg region to cut Kusal’s innings short.

As Kusal was walking back, Pandya just had a confident stare at him but didn’t say anything. This stare depicted Hardik as ready for the challenge and was obviously happy to complete the task for the team.

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Even in the T20 World Cup 2024, Hardik gave a similar, or maybe more animated, stare to Shadab Khan after dismissing him with a shorter-length delivery. This time, Hardik just stood there and saw Kusal amble back after taking the second wicket in the over to bring India back into the game.

Talking about the game, Sri Lanka posted a fighting 161/9 on the board while batting first. Their innings story was similar to the one in the previous game; they started well and looked well on track before a massive collapse in the death overs.

However, the rain came right after India started the chase, and the teams had to return back to the pavilion in a hurry. The rain persisted for long enough to make the game a shortened one; they required 78 runs to chase in eight overs due to the DLS method.

The chase didn’t have a great start, for India lost Sanju Samson on a golden duck. But the newly-appointed captain, Suryakumar Yadav, and Yashasvi Jaiswal stitched a fine partnership to keep India on track.

They made the chase easy and looked well on track to hunt down the target with ease. A win in this game would ensure a series win for the Men in Blue with a T20 match to spare.

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