Feature

Dhoni's quick hands, and the low full toss fusillade

Plays of the day from the second T20I between India and Sri Lanka in Ranchi

Thisara Perera's hat-trick came courtesy three full tosses  •  BCCI

Thisara Perera's hat-trick came courtesy three full tosses  •  BCCI

The low full toss fusillade
Thisara Perera had had a modest evening with the ball until he was called upon to bowl the penultimate over, which completely turned his figures around. He bowled two wides amid his first three deliveries, and then the wickets came. Hardik Pandya slapped a shin-height full toss to long-on, before Suresh Raina lap-swept the next full toss aerially to short fine leg. Yuvraj Singh only just came to the crease, but tried to smack Perera's final ball out of the ground. His low full toss took the toe end of the bat, and long-on settled comfortably beneath it again.
The leap
Dushmantha Chameera had varied his pace nicely to take Shikhar Dhawan's wicket, but while that catch had gone to the keeper, he had to do his own stunts to get his next scalp. Chameera's slower ball to Rohit Sharma took the leading edge and sailed gently towards the non-striker, but well into his follow through, Chameera was still metres from the ball. Somehow the bowler managed to swing his hips around and dove full-length to his right. The photographers caught him in that glory pose, completely horizontal, feet off the ground, and ball securely in hand.
The knock forward
Hardik Pandya, already having spilt a tough catch at mid-on, ran hard at a Dinesh Chandimal straight drive in the fourth over, attempting to cut it off just outside the 30-yard circle. As he dived onto the patchy turf though, Pandya only succeeded in pushing the ball further away from himself. Getting up quickly, he sped after it again, and managed to just pull it back with a diving save, centimetres from the boundary.
The quick hands
Tillakaratne Dilshan had recovered from a hand injury to play this match, but it was MS Dhoni's hands that defined his match. R Ashwin slipped the second ball of the innings past Dilshan's shot, with the batsman momentarily dragging his back foot out of the crease. He was only out of his ground for a second - if that - but that was plenty long enough for Dhoni to whip the bails off. Later in the innings, he also stumped Dinesh Chandimal, who had barely raised his back foot off the ground.

Andrew Fidel Fernando is ESPNcricinfo's Sri Lanka correspondent. @andrewffernando