India avenged their loss from Sri Lanka in the 4th T20I match of Nidahas Trophy played at R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo just finished a few moments ago. Winning the toss Rohit Sharma invited India into bat. Kusal Mendis played an aggressive knock, the Indian bowler made an excellent comeback and restricted Sri Lanka to 152 for 9. In reply, India lost 4 wickets but the partnership between Karthik and Manish Pandey ensured India’s easy win.
Rohit Sharma won the toss and invited Sri Lanka to bat in a 19 overs match. Sri Lankan openers Gunathilaka and Kusal Mendis the team a flying start adding 25 runs in 2.1 overs. Shardul Thakur took the wicket of Gunathilaka with a brilliant catch from Suresh Raina. Washington Sundar bowled in-form Kusal Perera for 3 runs. At the end of first 6 overs, Sri Lanka 53 runs for 2 wickets.
Upul Tharanga struggled to time the ball and added 62 runs for the third with Kusal Mendis. Kusal Mendis continued his good form completing his half-century off 31 balls. Sri Lanka lost wickets at regular intervals as the Indian bowlers made the life tough with good disciplined bowling. Shardul Thakur did most of the damage picking up 4 wickets giving away just 27 runs. From 113 for 4 in the 12th over, Sri Lanka was restricted to 152 for 9 in 19 overs as Indian bowlers gave 44 runs picking up 6 wickets.
Chasing 153, Rohit Sharma failed for the third successive match in this tri-series as he was dismissed for 11 runs. Shikhar Dhawan did not contribute much scoring just 8 runs. Suresh Raina looked in aggressive touch with attacking stroke play. At the end of six overs, India scored 50 runs for a loss of 2 wickets.
Suresh Raina and KL Rahul added 40 runs for the third wicket. Raina was dismissed for 27 off 15 balls. India lost another wicket of KL Rahul with the scoreboard reading 85. Dinesh Karthik and Manish Pandey looked at ease and put on 68 runs for the 5th wicket. India won the match by 6 wickets with 9 balls to spare.
India 153 for 4 in 17.3 overs ( Manish Pandey 42*, Dinesh Karthik 39*, Suresh Raina 27, Danajaya 2/19) beat
Sri Lanka 152 for 9 in 19 overs ( Kusal Mendis 55, Washington Sundar 2/21, Shardul Thakur 4/27) by 6 wickets.
Indian captain Rohit Sharma said: Another good performance by our bowlers to restrict such a powerful batting line-up of Sri Lanka to just 152. The bowlers executed the plans and made life tough for Sri Lankan batsman. We continued our performances from Bangladesh game. With all three teams alive in the tournament, we would love to continue the momentum from here on.
Sri Lankan captain Thisara Perera said: Our batting started well but lost wickets at regular intervals. It was not a 152 wicket as we were 30-40 runs short. 175-180 would have been competitive. In the first 6 overs, we could not execute our plans. Next match is a must win and I am sure would we give 100% and enter the finals with good performance.
Man of the match Shardul Thakur said: Great to receive this award. Always dreamt of winning a game for India and did the job for the country. There was nothing special and discussed to execute our plans and not allowing Sri Lankan batsmen to score runs easily.
With this win, India topped the points table with 4 points. Men in Blue will play their next match against Bangladesh on 14th March.