Sri Lanka vs India, 4th T20I, Nidahas Trophy 2018: 5 Talking Points
After more than an hour's play was lost to the rain, it was something to cheer for the crowd as the captains made their way to the middle for the toss. The game became 19-overs-per-side.
India won the toss and opted to field first. Once again like the previous games, Sri Lanka, who were without their regular skipper Dinesh Chandimal, got off to a flying start despite losing two wickets. Kusal Mendis’ 38-ball 55 helped the hosts to reach 94/2 at the 10-over mark. But the Indian bowlers bowled very well to restrict the hosts to 152/9.
In reply, India started the chase poorly as they lost both Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan in the span of 7 balls. But KL Rahul and Suresh Raina put on 40 runs for the third wicket and stabilized things.
But the latter fell trying to clear the infield and Rahul became the first India to get out hit-wicket in T20Is. Manish Pandey and Dinesh Karthik then finished off the chase as they took India home with 15 balls to spare.
Here are five talking points from the game.
#5 Sri Lanka start with a bang but lose two wickets in the powerplay
After being put into bat by Rohit Sharma, Sri Lanka would’ve hoped their openers would continue the good form they’ve shown in this series. And they started with a bang!
Jaydev Unadkat opened the bowling for India. Sri Lanka got five runs off the first ball as KL Rahul fired a throw which deflected to the boundary off Kusal Mendis’ bat. On the second delivery, Mendis struck a superb six over cover to take the score to 11/0 after the first two deliveries of the game. 15 came off the first over.
Washington Sundar bowled the second over and he was hit for a six of his first ball by Gunathilaka. That took the score to 21 off just 7 deliveries.
However, India came back strongly as they picked up two key wickets. Shardul Thakur got the wicket of Gunathilaka as Raina took a spectacular catch at mid-wicket, while the dangerous Kusal Perera was castled by young Washington Sundar. Sri Lanka managed to reach 53/2 at the end of the powerplay.