Dhawan, Ashwin level series

Opener Shikhar Dhawan struck his maiden Twenty20 fifty to help India to a crushing 69-run victory over Sri Lanka in Pune yesterday, helping the hosts level the series after their loss in the first game of the three-match series on Tuesday.

Put into bat on a flat pitch, Dhawan's blistering innings of 51 off 25 ball enabled India to post a challenging 196 for six, despite a late hattrick from Thisara Perera. His opening stand with Rohit Sharma provided a solid 75-run base against an inexperienced Sri Lankan bowling.

But after a brief respite when Dushmantha Chameera picked up Dhawan's wicket, Hardik Pandya smashed a 12-ball 27, which included two sixes against Sachithsra Senanayake in the 17th over.

Perera took a hat-trick at the tail-end of the Indian innings, sending back Pandya, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh in the 18th over to record the first T20I hattrick by a Sri Lankan .

Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin struck with the very first legal delivery of the Sri Lankan innings to get veteran opener Tilllkaratne Dilshan stumped.

Left-arm pacer Ashish Nehra also rattled the Lankan top-order with two more strikes and put the visitors on the back foot. Skipper Dinesh Chandimal and Chamara Kapugedara fought back with a 52-run fourth-wicket stand but left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja snared both with consecutive deliveries to foil the resistance.

SCORES IN BRIEF
INDIA: 196 for 6 (Dhawan 51, Sharma 43, Raina 30; Perera 3-33, Chameera 2-38)
SRI LANKA: 127 for 9 (Kapugedera 32, Chandimal 31, Siriwardana 28 not out; Ashwin 3-14, Jadeja 2-24, Bumrah 2-17)
Result: India won by 69 runs