A blunder from India's T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav nearly cost the team the third match against Sri Lanka on Tuesday. It was the third and final T20I of the series. Sri Lanka were chasing 138 runs but their poor performance in batting towards the end saw India making a remarkable comeback in Pallekele. The hosts needed 5 runs off the final two balls to win the game. This is when Chamindu Wickramasinghe slammed Suryakumar's fuller delivery to long-off and tried to steal a couple.
The throw from long-off came at the non-striker's end where Asitha Fernando could have been caught well short of his crease but Suryakumar made a big mistake. The Indian captain collected the ball in time but instead of breaking the stumps at the non-striker's end, he threw it to wicketkeeper Sanju Samson at the other end. As a result, the Sri Lanka batters managed to save their wickets and completed the double.
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Game-changing batting
Game-changing bowling @surya_14kumar bhau mann la #SonySportsNetwork#SLvIND#TeamIndia#SuryakumarYadavpic.twitter.com/5G3PESMVY9— Sony Sports Network (@SonySportsNetwk) July 30, 2024
The missed run-out played a big role in helping Sri Lanka to take the game into Super Over. However, India eased past the hosts there with a dominating performance.
"More than the last over, I feel when we were around 30/4 and 48/5, how the boys showed character in the middle and took the game away from them … I felt 140 was a par score on that track. When we were going in during fielding session I told them, 'I have seen such kind of games. If we put our heart in for one and a half hours, we can pull it off'," said Surya after the game.
"If you are enjoying hitting 200-220s and winning games, you should enjoy 30/4 and 70/5 as well because that creates balance in your life and that's how you move on and just be humble," he added.