India regained their winning touch with a spectacular all-round display as they thrashed Sri Lanka by 69 runs in the second T20 International in Ranchi to level the three match series.
The visitors had won the opening game in Pune by five wickets.
The visitors made a mess of the steep chase by losing their first three wickets for 16 runs.
Ravichandran Ashwin struck in the first legitimate ball of the innings, with captain MS Dhoni pulling off a split second stumping to send back Tillakaratne Dilshan. Ashwin had started his spell with two wides.
Ashish Nehra had Seekkuge Prasanna on the very first ball of his opening spell before inducing an edge from opener Danushka Gunathilaka to leave Sri Lanka tottering.
Chamara Kapugedera (32) and captain Dinesh Chandimal (31) shared a brisk 52-run stand for the fourth wicket before Ravindra Jadeja got rid of them in successive balls to dash all hopes of a Sri Lankan comeback.
Earlier, Shikhar Dhawan smashed his maiden T20 International fifty to fire India to 196-6.
Dhawan (51 off 25) stood out in India's run feast with the other notable performance coming from his opening partner Rohit Sharma (43 off 36), Hardik Pandya (27 off 12) and Suresh Raina (30 off 19).
Sri Lanka put the hosts in to bat for the second game in a row and India openers were on fire from the word go. Unlike the greenish deck for the first T20, the pitch aided the stroke-play they are known for.
Dhawan got going with a couple of delightful sixes. He flicked pacer Thisara Perera over mid-wicket before sweeping spinner Sachithra Senanayake in the following over for another maximum. There was no stopping Dhawan after that as he got to his maiden T20 International fifty in 22 balls.
Rohit did not mind watching Dhawan demolishing the opposition bowlers from the other and by the end of six overs, India had to raced to 70 for no loss.
The visitors pulled things back in the penultimate over with pacer Thisara Perera (3-33) picking up a hat-trick, the fourth ever in T20 Internationals, and the first by a Sri Lankan.
In fact, India could have scored more had it not been for the hat-trick of Perera, who removed Pandya, Raina and Yuvraj in the 19th over.
The final match of the three-match series will be played in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
