Published: Mar 17, 2014, 10:17 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 19, 2014, 05:49 PM (IST)
By Shrikant Shankar
Mar 17, 2014
Sri Lanka pipped India by a narrow margin of five runs in a warm-up match in the ICC World T20 2014 at Dhaka on March 17, 2014. India were bowled out for 148 while chasing a 154-run target against Sri Lanka in the T20 World Cup. Lasith Malinga was the pick of the bowlers as he took four wickets. Suresh Raina top-scored for India with 41 runs and Yuvraj Singh scored 33 runs.
Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma began the run-chase for India. But it didn’t start all that well as Dhawan hit a length delivery from Nuwan Kulasekara straight to Thisara Perara at mid-off. He was out for two runs. Kulasekara then bowled a full delivery outside off-stump and Suresh Raina drove that over mid-off for a four.
Kulasekara bowled a short delivery and Raina pulled that for a six over deep square-leg. Malinga came into the attack in the fifth over and dismissed his Mumbai Indians teammate and captain Rohit for four runs. He bowled one on the pads and Rohit slicked that in the air but Kusal Perera took a running catch at deep square-leg.
Malinga then bowled a long-hop and Raine played a short-armed pull to get a four behind square on the leg side. Sachitra Sennanayike came in and Raina gave him the charge and hit one towards extra-cover. The fielder at short extra-cover dropped a high and flat catch. Senanayake bowled on a good length and Raina came down the track and hit an inside-out shot over extra-cover for a four.
Raina tried a similar shot against Ajantha Mendis, but mishit it to Rangana Herath at long-off. He was out for 41 off 31 deliveries. New batsman Ajinkya Rahane then gave a simple catch back to bowler Senanayake and was out for a two-ball duck. Herath then came into the attack and tossed one. Yuvraj danced down the track and hit the ball over the deep mid-wicket boundary for a six.
Mendis came in and Virat Kohli also danced down the pitch and played an inside-out shot for a four over extra-cover. Kohli then played a late cut to get two runs. Yuvraj then used his feet again and lofted Mendis over long-on for a six.
Malinga came back into the attack in the 13th over and Kohli closed the face of his bat and hit a straight ball over mid-wicket for a four. Malinga then bowled a slow and wide delivery. Kohli played away from his body and only inside-edged in onto his stumps. Malinga then bowled a yorker and Jadeja edged the ball for a four towards third-man.
Yuvraj cut a short and wide delivery from Senanayake for a four in-between third-man and point. Kulasekara came back into the attack in the 16th over and bowled a full delivery outside off-stump. Yuvraj played a delightful square-drive for a four. The next delivery was similar, but this time Yuvraj edged the ball to Kumar Sangakkara behind the wickets. He was dismissed for 33 off 28 deliveries.
Herath then struck in the 17th over as Jadeja top-edged his slog-sweep high in the air. Senanayake took the catch at deep mid-wicket. Stuart Binny hit one from Herath down the ground for a four. Binny then played a square-drive to a full delivery from Malinga and got a four in front of the deep cover-point fielder.
In the 10th over, Kulasekara bowled a full delivery well outside off-stump, but Ravichandran Ashwin literally swept it the old fashioned way in front of the short fine-leg fielder for a four. Ashwin then cross-batted a length delivery in the air for a six down the ground.
As it came down, India needed 12 runs from the last over. Malinga bowled that over for Sri Lanka. He bowled a low full-toss on leg-stump and Ashwin flicked it away for a for towards long-leg. Malinga then bowled a yorker and Ashwin missed. The batsmen went for a quick single, but Sangakkara hit the stumps and Binny was run out.
Ashwin then lobbed a catch to Kulasekara at mid-wicket and next ball Amit Mishra got bowled as Sri Lanka won the match. Malinga finished with figures of four for 30 in his four overs. Kulasekara took two wickets as well.
Earlier, India captain MS Dhoni won the toss and sent Sri Lanka into bat first. They posted a total of 153 for six in their 20 overs. Mahela Jayawardene top-scored with 30 and Dinesh Chandimal scored 29. Thisara Perera scored a quick 18 while Nuwan Kulasekara added 21 towards the end as Sri Lanka posted a competitive total. Ashwin was the pick of the bowlers as he took three wickets.
At the time it looked as a competitive total and proved to be just enough. Dhoni did not come out to bat for India as he revealed that he was carrying a small injury in his right hand for the past few days. He also said that he wanted to give the others in the team a chance to bat as it was only a warm-up tie.
Brief scores:
Sri Lanka 153 for six in 20 overs (Mahela Jayawardene 30, Dinesh Chandimal 29; Ravichandran Ashwin 3 for 22) beat India 148 in 20 overs (Suresh Raina 41, Yuvraj Singh 33; Lasith Malinga 4 for 30, Nuwan Kulasekara 2 for 37) by 5 runs.
(Shrikant Shankar is a writer/reporter at CricketCountry.com. Previously he has done audio commentary for various matches involving India, Indian Premier League and Champions League Twenty20 for ESPNSTAR.com. You can follow him on Twitter @Shrikant_23)
