During the fourth match of the Nidahas Trophy between Sri Lanka and India at Colombo, Sri Lanka have scored 152-9 in their allotted quota of 19 overs. Slight rain before the start of the match saw the match being reduced to a 19-over fixture.
Citing the uncertain weather in mind, Rohit Sharma, the Indian captain, won the toss and put in the home team in to bat. Lokesh Rahul, who was kept waiting for some time on the bench now, was included in the playing eleven in place of Rishabh Pant. For Sri Lanka, fast bowler Suranga Lakmal was included in the playing eleven in place of their suspended captain, Dinesh Chandimal.
Kusal Mendis, who has been in the scintillating form off late, started well for Sri Lanka. But his progress was affected when his opening partner in Danushka Gunathilaka (17) was dismissed by an excellent Suresh Raina-catch in the third over. In-form Kusal Perera (3) paid the price of trying to play a reverse sweep early in his innings.
By the end of the powerplay, Sri Lanka had scored 53-2. Mendis came into his own after the powerplay as Sri Lanka raced to 94-2 in 10 overs. Scoring at such a rate in the middle overs were signs of wonder for them.
The next five overs saw Sri Lanka losing four wickets, hence, putting a halt to their progress. The last of the four wickets hurt them the most as the set batsman in Kusal Mendis had departed for 55 (38). His innings was comprised of three fours and three sixes.
Sri Lanka failed to come out of this bubble in the remaining overs and ended up scoring 152-9. With bowling figures of 4-0-27-4, Shardul Thakur was the pick of the bowlers for India. He was pinpoint with his knuckle delivery which became the highlight of his spell as he picked up his career-best bowling figures. Washington Sundar (4-0-21-2), too, was impressive as he restricted the opposition batsmen and picked up a couple of wickets as well.