India in Zimbabwe: Men in Blue beat Sri Lanka to revive hopes

After a dismal show of cricket in the T20 World Cup, everyone expected to see some revengeful form in all the players. But, that did not come across in the first match of the Tri-series tournament between India, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.

Rohit Sharma: Eyes on the ball

India lost their first match against Zimbabwe in spite of making 284 runs which looked almost impossible at one stage of the match but thanks to Rohit Sharma’s ton they managed this competitive total. With the likes of Yuvraj, Dhoni, Gambhir, Zaheer, Harbajan and Tendulkar not playing in the tournament, we expected the youngsters of the game to shine and show what they are capable of. But, once again lack of experience was clear on the field. Zimbabwe swept through the Indian bowling attack and chased down the target of 283 effectively.

The next match against Sri Lanka and with all their players intact, India needed nothing less than sheer brilliance. Suresh Raina: the stand-in captain for this tournament won the toss and elected to field first. For the first time in 6 months the Indian bowlers understood the graveness of the situation that they were in and bowled well. They managed to restrict the Sri Lankan batsmen to a respectable total of 242. Ojha, Jadeja, Dinda all managed to pick up two wickets each and Yadav managed to take one wicket. The batsmen that Sri Lankans need to thank for bringing them to this total were Dilshan and Matthews, who made 62 and 75 respectively.

When the Indians came out to bat, once again lost both their openers within 10 overs. But, the resistance of Rohit Sharma again proved to be the saving grace for the Indians. Along with him the former under 19 world cup captain Virat Kohli proved that he is definitely here to stay. Both these batsmen displayed elegance and grace in their batting to put India into a winning position. When Virat Kohli fell, India was well placed for a win. Virat Kohli made a wonderful 82 and when he walked back to the pavilion India needed just 42runs in 12 overs.

Rohit Sharma ensured that there were no more hindrances in the way of the Indian Victory as he scored a second successive 100 in this tournament in the 43rd over of the match. He managed to remain not out on 101 runs along with his captain Raina who made a quick 24 runs and took home the game from Sri Lanka with 6.3 overs still remaining. India won the match by 7 wickets.

Hoping that the youngsters display this level of performance in the time to come as well. And as for the players who have been rested, its time you get back to the field.