Sri Lanka vs India 4th T20I Summary and Analysis

VS

Srilanka

1. 1. In today’s match between Srilanka and India, the hosts were quite confident as they had already beaten India in the opening match of this series, however India like any other strong team has the habit of coming back strongly which it did and won the match easily against Srilanka to lead the points table.
   2. The match was started late due to rain and so one over was deducted from both teams and now each innings consisted of 19 instead of 20 overs. India won the toss and elected to field first. Srilankan openers who were in top form started the proceedings and got off to a flying start. But, Thakur struck early as Gunathilaka had to depart after a well made 17 off 8 balls.
   3. Kusal Perera then joined his Srilankan team-mate but his stay was not long lived as Washington Sundar uprooted the stumps of the batsman. In an effort to rebuild Upul Tharanga walked on the field who along with Kusal Perera shared a 62-run partnership to put Srilanka in the front.
   4. But, a timely wicket from Vijay Shankar who was also the man of the match in the previous match against Bangladesh put India right back in the game. Thisara Perera came to the crease and blasted a 6 ball 15 but his cameo was ended by Chahal who tricked the batsman in lofting up a skier which was comfortably taken by Thakur.
   5. After the wicket of Thisara Perera no Srilankan batsman looked dangerous except for the opener Kusal Mendis who also departed after scoring 55 runs off 38 balls. India’s bowlers were exceptional in the death overs which led to Srilanka only posting a total of 152 in 19 overs.
   6. Indian openers, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan started their innings hoping to chase this total down all by themselves. But, both batsmen departed after small contributions of 11 and 8 respectively. However, Raina and Rahul steadied the Indian ship as both shared a partnership of 40 in 21 balls.
   7. Raina’s aggressive approach could not hold for long as he gifted his wicket to Fernando followed by Rahul who walked back to the pavilion three overs later after being hit wicket of Mendis’s bowling.
   8. Srilanka were on top of India at this point and a few more wickets meant that Srilanka had won this game however, some sensible batting from Manish Pandey and Dinesh Karthik denied them this win. Pandey and Karthik shared a 68* run partnership and steered India home in the 18th over.
   9. It was a comprehensive win for India who are now leading the race towards the Nidahas Trophy

MD Gunathilaka
BKG Mendis
MDKJ Perera †
WU Tharanga
NLTC Perera (c)
BMAJ Mendis
MD Shanaka
A Dananjaya
RAS Lakmal
PVD Chameera
ANPR Fernando

RG Sharma (c)
S Dhawan
KL Rahul
SK Raina
MK Pandey
KD Karthik †
V Shankar
Washington Sundar
SN Thakur
JD Unadkat
YS Chahal