India beat Sri Lanka by five wickets in Asia Cup

The India innings began with a Nuwan Kulasekara massacre.

India will be looking to through the Sri Lanka bowling attack as India have struggled against fast bowling on these green pitches in this tournament Nuwan Kulasekara has a very important role to play in their bowling attack with the absence of Lasith Malinga he has to lead the fast bowling attack from the front.

On the other side, though India seems to be the hot favorites in this tournament till now, there are growing worries for the team with the injuries of Rohit Sharma, M.S Dhoni and Shikhar Dhawan. “The batters were finding it hard to hit boundaries off the spinners, which is why I delayed the fast bowlers”.

Yuvraj Singh may not have got too many runs but his gritty effort had been acknowledged by none other than the skipper and he will like to get a big knock before the start of the World T20. He took a few catches, did a bit of shadow batting and was the last one to come out to bat in fading light. Surely, there is something special when Yuvraj takes India to a win. Especially Pandya, who has contributed both with the bat and ball in the two matches that he has played here. Both of them have recovered from their injuries and will most likely open for India today. Thisara Perara was smashed over cover for Yuvraj’s third six. Yuvraj struck 3 fours and 3 sixes en route to his 18-ball 35. Incidentally, he scored 14 not out off 32 balls in his last innings against Pakistan.

Hardik Pandya was again sent into finish the job but was rattled by Herath for 2. Dinesh Chandimal inside-edged a slog to Dhoni off Ashish Nehra in the third over and Shehan Jayawardene followed suit in the next over off Jasprit Bumrah.

A mini-recovery ensued, with Tillakaratne Dilshan picking up a couple of boundaries. The introduction of Hardik Pandya brought about his downfall though. Manzoor made 10 in 18 balls, Shoaib Malik made 4 off 12 balls, Akmal made 3 off 4 balls, Sarfraz Ahmed made 25 off 24 balls with three fours, Afridi made 2, Sami made 4 off 12 balls.

Chamara Kapugedera and Milinda Siriwardana staged an impressive fightback.

Mathews and Kapugedera attempted to set down a platform for Sri Lanka’s hitters, but their going was slow.

But the partnership came to an end when Siriwardana holed out Raina at long-on while trying to hit Ashwin out of the ground. Kohli, who played a brilliant innings of 49 under pressure against Pakistan on Saturday, hit 56 off 47 balls to guide India to 142-5 after their medium pacers restricted Sri Lanka to 138-9. One change, Dhawan back for Rahane.

Earlier, India won the toss and elected to field first.

Despite losing to Bangladesh in their first T20 on Sunday, Sri Lanka opted to retain the same team.

Angelo Mathews captained the Sri Lankan side as Lasith Malinga missed the second successive game.