Karthik, Pandey and Thakur guide India to win

India 153 for 4 (Pandey 42*, Karthik 39*, Dananjaya 2-19) beat Sri Lanka 152 for 9 (K Mendis 55, Thakur 4-27, Sundar 2-22) by 6 wickets.

Colombo: India won their second game of the Nidahas Trophy 2018, beating Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in Colombo on Monday.

It was Manish Pandey and Dinesh Karthik, who steered India’s ship on top of the table. It was a combined effort from Indian bowlers that restricted hosts to 152. With this win, India have 4 points 3 games, with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh following them.

Visitor’s were off to a poor start. They lost Rohit Sharma early-on; a norm in this series. Sharma was picked by Akila Dananjaya. Dananjaya picked his second wicket soon, Shikhar Dhawan, the man in form, lost his wicket trying to heave Dananjaya over mid wicket. He fell for a 10-ball 8.

It was then that KL Rahul and Raina took charge. The pair slowly and steadily accumulated runs to bring India back into the chase. Raina in particular adopted his aggressive approach.

During his knock of 27, Raina slammed 2 fours and 2 sixes. He also surpassed MS Dhoni’s tally of 1,444 T20I runs. Raina had a soft dismissal chipping a simple catch to Thisara Perera off Nuwan Pradeep.

Rahul, who came in for Rishabh Pant, looked nervous yet played a sensible knock. Sadly, he created an unwanted Indian record to become the first batsman to get out hit-wicket in a T20I. Jeevan Mendis after picking Rahul’s wicket went off the field due to nurse an injury.

Pandey batted quite sensibly to anchor India’s innings. He along with Dinesh Karthik took India to safety. They hardly dropped a sweat in the middle during their 68-run stand for the fifth wicket.ets

Sri Lanka batting first managed 152 for 9, thanks to Kusal Mendis’s blitz. He scored a 38-ball 55, that included 3 fours and as many sixes.

For India, Shardul Thakur picked 4 wickets to down Sri Lanka’s march. Washington Sundar picked two crucial wickets.

The plan was to unsettle the bowlers from the word go, and it was evident through Danuskha Gunathilaka’s 8-ball 17.

Mendis broke the shackles soon, and carried on his rich form (later slamming his fourth fifty in the last five innings). Washington Sundar removed danger-man Kusal Perera, and tightened the screws.

Rohit applied Yuzvendra Chahal from the other end to get rid of Mendis. While that didn’t happen, Mendis dominated a 62-run stand with Upul Tharanga.

Mendis, Tharanga added 17 runs off Chahal’s 8th over, and maintained the run-rate over 9. Tharanga, against the run of play, fell for 22.

Vijay Shankar’s change of pace kept the batsman at bay. Stand-in skipper Thisara Perera came out with all guns blazing. He smashed two consecutive sixes off the first two balls, and displayed his intentions.