It was a Smart Performance from the Bowlers in Particular: Rohit Sharma

The Men in Blue registered a comprehensive victory against hosts Sri Lanka in the 4^th match of the Nidahas Trophy. They now lead the table with 2 victories in 3 matches. Earlier in the day, it was the visiting bowlers who restricted the Lankans to a manageable score of 152 runs in 19 overs. The score wasn’t big enough for the Indian batting order. Despite an initial hiccup, the visitors won the encounter by 6 wickets and with 9 deliveries to spare.

The match started an hour late due to downpour. It as Indian skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and put the visitors in. Sri Lanka began pretty well with openers Danushka Gunathilaka and Kusal Mendis beginning proceedings. After a25 runs partnership it as Shardul Thakur who provided the maiden breakthrough in the form of Gunathilaka.

Mendis, on the other hand, struck some magnificent shots as Washington Sundar provided the wicket of There were brief partnerships in between but Sri Lanka wasn’t able to consolidate  Mendis struck a well-composed half-century. Wickets kept falling on the other end as the hosts could only make 152 at the end of their allotted 20 overs.

Shardul Thakur was the pick of the Indian bowlers bagging 4 wickets for only 27 runs. However, it was Washington Sundar who was the real hero in the middle overs stemming the run flow. He eventually bagged a couple of wickets conceding just 21 runs.

Chasing the total, Rohit Sharma began with two exquisite boundaries in the very first over. However, it was Akila Dananjaya who prized out both the openers in a quick span. There was a 40 runs partnership between Lokesh Raahul and Sursh Raina Raina struck some delightful shots during his brief stay at the crease. The southpaw made 27 of 15 deliveries which contained a couple of fours and sixes each.

KL Rahul also fell in quick succession as India was reduced to 85/4. But from there on it was the pair of Dinesh Karthik and Manish Pandey who shared a brilliant unbeaten partnership of 68 runs as India chased the total down with 9 deliveries to spare. While Pandey scored an unbeaten 42, Karthik was not out on 39.

Here is what Indian skipper Rohit Sharma said at the post-match presentation

Smart performance, especially from the bowlers. To restrict a batting unit like that, it was a great effort from the bowlers. The conditions weren’t easy for the bowlers, there was a bit of dew on the ground. Neither easy for the spinners nor the pacers, but they have executed their plans really well. Just continued where we left off against Bangladesh. The bowlers came out and executed the ideas and plans really well. We discussed a lot of things and it was very much on display for everyone to see. We bat really deep and we haven’t had a batting line-up like that in a long time. We have a lot of all-rounders, but the middle-order hasn’t had opportunities to bat  in the recent past, but as you saw today, Manish and DK batted extremely well. Can’t single out a performance, it was a complete team effort. We aren’t laid back at all, because all three teams are still alive in the tournament.”

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