Kusal Perera accomplishes this milestone with 14th T20I fifty
Dashing Sri Lankan batter Kusal Perera hammered a stunning half-century against India in the second T20I in Pallekele. The southpaw batted with remarkable intent and scored 53 off 34 balls, having smoked six fours and two maximums. Notably, Perera now owns the joint-most T20I fifties by a SL batter. This was also his third fifty against India in this format. Here are his stats.
A fine effort from Perera
Perera arrived in the fourth over with the scorecard reading 26/2. He steadied the ship alongside Pathum Nissanka (32) as the duo added 54 runs. The former further added 50 runs with Kamindu Mendis (26) to take his side past 100. Perera fell to Hardik Pandya in the 15th over, soon after completing his fifty. Nevertheless, his efforts meant SL finished at 161/9.
Perera joins Mendis and Dilshan
As per ESPNcricinfo, this was Perera's 14th fifty in T20Is, the joint-most for an SL batter. He joined Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kusal Mendis. SL's second-highest run-getter in T20Is, Perera has raced to 1,751 runs from 68 games at 26.93 (SR: 131.25). 289 of his runs have come against India at 28.90 (50s: 3). At home, he now boasts 809 runs at 26.96 (50s: 8).
Over 4,000 runs in T20s
This knock has taken Perera's tally to 4,066 runs from 170 T20 matches at 26.23. While this was his 30th fifty, he also boasts a century in this format. His strike rate reads an impressive 136.67.
