India's Poor Fielding Costs Them Four Catches in T20I Against Sri Lanka

India dropped four catches in the first T20I of the five-match series against Sri Lanka at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Sunday, equalling the highest record. India had dropped four catches against Pakistan during the 2018 T20 World Cup in Providence, then against Sri Lanka at the 2020 T20 World Cup in Melbourne. These are India’s poorest fielding performances in T20Is, based on the available fielding data. India Vs Sri Lanka: 1st T20I – Live Score India restricted Sri Lanka to a modest 121 /6, as the visiting batters struggled to capitalise on loose deliveries, with dew playing a role early on. Opener Vishmi Gunaratne top-scored for the visitors with a 43-ball 39, while Hasini Perera and Harshitha Samarawickrama contributed 20 and 21 runs respectively. Sri Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu began aggressively, hitting an innocuous delivery from Kranti Gaud for a four. Deepti Sharma, the Player of the Series in India’s recent ODI World Cup victory, showcased her fielding skills by restricting what seemed a certain boundary to just one run. Athapaththu then hit two fours in three balls off Gaud. Athapaththu’s attacking approach forced Gaud to switch to around the wicket, which proved successful as the young seamer bowled the Sri Lankan captain, disturbing the stumps and giving India their first breakthrough. Hasini Perera found a boundary off Gaud towards deep fine leg before Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur introduced Deepti Sharma into the attack during the powerplay. Hasini missed out on a couple of loose balls, allowing Deepti to bowl a maiden over, resulting in Sri Lanka being 31 for one at the end of the powerplay. Vaishnavi Sharma, slower than her left-arm spin colleague Shree Charani, had a tidy spell on her international debut, conceding just three runs in her first over. Hasini played a reverse sweep to collect a four off Charani, who then dropped a straightforward catch at short fine leg, giving the Lankan batter a reprieve. Had Charani held on to that catch, it would have given Vaishnavi her maiden wicket. Desperately searching for quick runs, Hasini fell in the next over, playing the ball to Gaud at short third after attempting another reverse sweep against Deepti. Despite the dew making it difficult for the Indian bowlers to grip the ball, they managed to restrict Sri Lanka to 55 for two in the first 10 overs. Charani, having a tough day in the field, then dropped Harshitha Madavi off Arundhati Reddy’s bowling. (With inputs from Agencies)