Fifties from Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer and a complete bowling performance took India to a comfortable victory in the first T20I against Sri Lanka at the Ekana stadium in Lucknow.

India made six changes to their starting XI from the previous game against the Windies. Deepak Hooda made his T20I debut for India while Ravindra Jadeja made his return to the XI after more than two months out due to injury.

Here’s how the match progressed:

Ishan Kishan goes big

Captain Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan opened the innings for India and shared a 111-run partnership up top.

Ishan Kishan was the more aggressive of the duo. After a sedate start, at one point batting on 2 off 7 balls, Kishan let loose with three consecutive boundaries off Chamika Karunaratne in the third over.

Kishan hit a boundary virtually every over after that while Ro kept the scoreboard ticking before being dismissed for 44.

There were no boundaries in the 13th and 14th over but Kishan broke the shackles with two fours and a six off Lahiru Kumara. He was close to a maiden T20I century but the youngster holed out to deep mid-wicket for an explosive 89 off 56 balls and setting the platform for the finishers.

Shreyas Iyer finishes strong

Walking in at no. 3, Shreyas Iyer let Kishan have most of the strike in their 44-run partnership. However, once Kishan was dismissed, Shreyas brought his attacking game to the fore.

Batting on 19 off 15 balls at one point, Shreyas scored 38 in his last 13 balls, taking Chameera and Karunaratne to the cleaners in the final two overs to end unbeaten on 57 and taking India to 199/2 in their allotted 20 overs.

Bhuvi’s perfect start sets the tone for a victory

Bhuvneshwar Kumar got India off to the best possible start, dismissing opener Pathum Nissanka off the first ball of the innings before picking up Kamil Mishara an over later. Sri Lanka were only able to score 29 in the six powerplay overs.

The Lankans never recovered from that jolt as the Indian bowlers kept things very tight and forced Sri Lanka to take risks, eventually wrapping up a 62-run victory.

The second T20I will take place at Dharamsala on 26th February.