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The ‘Men-in-Blue’ began their new year in style by registering a thrilling win over Sri Lanka in the first T20I at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. After captain Hardik Pandya opted to bat first, India managed to put on 162 runs on the board for the loss of 5 wickets in their allotted 20 overs. Sri Lanka came mighty close to the target and fell just two runs short as Chamika Karunaratne kept them in the game till the last ball.
The first T20I saw two debutants for India Shubman Gill and Shivam Mavi. While Gill failed to leave an impact in his debut T20I innings, Mavi shone with the ball and hogged the limelight. The 24-year-old struck in his first over of international cricket itself as he cleaned up Pathum Nissanka giving India their first breakthrough on the score of 12.
He further dismissed Dhananjaya de Silva in his second over. Sri Lanka kept losing wickets at regular intervals and were left reeling at 68/5 after 10.4 overs. Seeing their team in trouble captain Dasun Shanaka and Wanindu Hasaranga added 40 runs for the sixth wicket.
The partnership looked threatening as Hasaranga was taking the game away from India. Mavi was brought back into the attack in the 15th over and broke the stand by dismissing Hasaranga. The Uttar Pradesh seamer added another wicket to his tally as he sent Maheesh Theekshana on his way back to the pavilion in the 18th over.
Mavi finished the match with figures of 4/22 in 4 overs. With this, he finished with the third-best bowling figures for India on his T20I debut and joined the likes of Barinder Sran and Pragyan Ojha who also picked up four-fers on their debut.
India won the match by two runs and took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. Deepak Hooda was awarded ‘Player of the Match’ for his innings of 41 off 23 balls. Hooda along with Axar Patel added 66 runs for the sixth wicket in 35 balls to take India from 94/5 after 14.1 overs to 162/5 in 20 overs.
Meanwhile, Twitter was abuzz with reactions on Mavi’s sensational performance. Here are some of the Tweets:
Shivam Mavi is playing Cricket on higher levels from years but still he's faild to reposition his head, coaches in NCA should help him avoiding this problem permanently. #INDvSL
— Manavdeep Singh (@Manav__01) January 4, 2023
#INDvSL
A superb spell on debut for Shivam Mavi 👌 pic.twitter.com/yErDwZjrTx— Sandeep Tomar (@Sandeep17Tomor) January 4, 2023
Shivam mavi definitely has the potential to become a great bowler. But what happened to his pace? In U-19 WC he was regularly touching 140-145 kph but in this match he doesn't even touched 140kph
— Raj (@__akhandpratap) January 4, 2023
Shivam Mavi said – "I will call up my mother and family". (Yesterday after his performance on debut match)
— Mdasim_bage (@MdasimB) January 4, 2023
https://twitter.com/paepasr/status/1610526991324971008?s=20&t=lcraiMgS61hmLioToZi1OQ
#ShivamMavi, who was making his debut, stood out right away, taking four wickets in #India exciting victory over #SriLanka at the #Wankhede Stadium.
— 777bet games (@777betgames) January 4, 2023
https://twitter.com/BHATISATENDRA/status/1610524207208878081?s=20&t=lcraiMgS61hmLioToZi1OQ
Why was Shivam Mavi not declared man of the match? 🤔 #INDvSL
— Pravin (@goanfitness) January 4, 2023
Gets released from KKR. Gets picked for the Indian team. Gives a match winning performance. Shivam Mavi continues the KKR legacy 😪.
— Midhun M Menon (@Mid_On_) January 4, 2023
https://twitter.com/1Nurkhan/status/1610517776841728001?s=20&t=lcraiMgS61hmLioToZi1OQ
Whatta way to start his international career 💙 sensational performance by debutant on his debut t20i match 22-4 (4) 🙌 #ShivamMavi #INDvSL pic.twitter.com/uJo0UYmk5E
— Shivam Dubey (@ShivamDubey45) January 3, 2023
A superb spell on debut for Shivam Mavi👌
Shivam Mavi deserve Man of the Match🏆#INDvSL @ShivamMavi23#ShivamMavi pic.twitter.com/85cCBe1Tgg— Jasbir Karhana (@iJasbirKarhana) January 3, 2023
