After clinching the series opener in Wankhede, Men in Blue went down to Sri Lanka in the second T20I by 16 runs in Pune on Thursday (January 5). With series locked at 1-1, both the teams will meet in Rajkot on January 7 (Saturday).
Despite Suryakumar Yadav and Axar Patel's fiery knock, India ran out steam in the last as Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanka, who had set the MCA stadium on fire with his 22-ball 56 knock, defended 21 runs in the final over to tilt the match in Sri Lanka's favour.
While chasing a challenging target of 207, India's top order was left in jitters as the host kept losing wicket in quick succession. India was teetering at 57/5 when Suryakumar (51 off 36) and Axar (65 off 31) tried to steady India's boat after stitching a highest partnership in T20Is for India at the sixth wicket and scored 91 runs together. But it wasn't meant to be for Hardik Pandya's brigade as they fell short of 16 runs at the end and were reduced to 190/8 in the stipulated 20 overs.
As far as India's bowling is concerned, it was marred by no-ball spree. While India's death overs specialist Arshdeep Singh conceded five no-balls, Shivam Mavi and Umran Malik gave one no-ball apiece. Arshdeep, who had to sit out of the first T20I, conceded three consecutive no-balls in his second over, which was also the 19th over of Sri Lanka's innings, giving away 18 runs. In a spell of two overs he gave away a total of 37 runs.
Arshdeep's no-ball blunder drew a lot of flak including cricket pundits. Meanwhile, former India skipper Gautam Gambhir tore into Arshdeep's no-ball blunder in the post match discussion on Star Sports.
"Imagine seven balls, it's like bowling more than 21 overs. Everyone bowls bad balls or plays bad shots but it's about the rhythm. If you are coming after an injury, you should not be playing an international game," Gambhir said.
"You should be going to domestic cricket and getting your rhythm back because no-balls are not acceptable. Whoever is injured and there is a long layoff, he has to go back to domestic cricket, bowl 15-20 overs, come back and then play an international game, and that was squarely seen when Arshdeep Singh was struggling with his rhythm," he further added.
The former India opener further opined that bowlers might be bowling no-balls in the nets and practice sessions which causes them to repeat such errors frequently in an international match too.
"As I just mentioned, you can have a shocker. Fielders can have a shocker, batters can play bad shots, bowlers can bowl those shocking deliveries but this thing is not acceptable. You might be doing it in the nets, during the practice sessions, that's the reason you do it in the match as well," said Gambhir.
"So it's up to the bowling coach to probably work on that as well because you have got to be harsh in the practice sessions. You just can't blame something else. Yes, it is tough for the captain to set fields. Seven no-balls and imagine conceding 30-odd runs in those seven balls was a massive difference," he concluded.
