Nidahas Trophy 2018: Sri Lanka beats India by 5 wickets

Through January and February, Sri Lanka played a one-day global tri-series (also featuring Zimbabwe), two Tests and two Twenty20 internationals in Bangladesh. But statistics does not help in the field.

After a dismal 2017 that was only brightened by a 2-0 Test series sweep in the UAE against Pakistan, Sri Lanka have made a bright start to 2018 under Chandika Hathurusingha, the new coach.

Although there were no signs of unrest in Colombo, where all the matches of the tri-nation series will take place, the journalists were wondering whether the tournament would take place at all amid the state of emergency.

So in the upcoming match, the young Indian team will look to get their team combination right. Rohit Sharma’s recent scores are a worrying factor for them while Shikhar Dhawan’s rich run being a boon. Of course, when you lose two wickets in the first two overs, then we have to see that we don’t lose more wickets and score runs as well.

Earlier, after being put in to bat first, India rode on Shikhar Dhawan’s classic 90-run inning to post 174/5 on the scoreboard. It seems that he dominated the Lions bowlers.

Chameera was the pick of the bowlers with two wickets, while Pradeep, Gunathilaka and Jeevan Mendis chipped in with one wicket apiece.

Such was the frenetic pace of the chase that Sri Lanka crossed the 50-run mark in less than four overs. Washington Sundar and Yuzvendra Chahal picked up 2 wickets each and held things back a little but that did not prove out to be enough to curtail Sri Lanka. The defeat to Sri Lanka in the opening game was their 2nd in nine matches in Sri Lanka.

India got off to a bad start as Dushmantha Chameera removed captain Rohit Sharma for a duck off the fourth ball of the first over.

Virat Kolhi has been rested, and Rohit Sharma is captain of the T20 tri-series in the Nidahas trophy.

Both added 95 runs off 64 balls to put India on course for a big total. Team India has played two matches on this ground before today; his winning record is 100% on this ground. Perera thumped the first ball casually over midwicket for a four, the second one he placed behind point and it raced to the fence, the third one went to the cover boundary, and the fourth – a slower delivery – was lifted over the long-on boundary. Rishabh Pant hit 23 but took the same number of balls.