India Vs Srilanka Asia Cup T20 2016 Mirpur
India 142 for 5 (Kohli 56*, Yuvraj 35) beat Sri Lanka 138 for 9 (Kapugedera 30, Siriwardana 22, Pandya 2-26, Ashwin 2-26) by five wickets
Virat Kohli stroked his third fifty in as many T20s against Sri Lanka to send his team cruising to the Asia Cup final, after a tight bowling performance had restrained the opposition to 138 for 9. Kohli arrived with India wobbling at 16 for 2 in the fourth over, but soon enlisted Suresh Raina, then Yuvraj Singh, for support, in what was eventually a comfortable chase. The winning runs were hit with four balls and five wickets to spare. Kohli’s share was a 47-ball 56 not out.
Kohli was in good touch from early in his innings, smoking Angelo Mathews through midwicket fifth ball, before pumping Nuwan Kulasekara through point before the end of the Powerplay. He’d hit one more sublime cover-drive off Dushmantha Chameera, in the first half of the innings, but largely laid low after that, mining singles and twos from the outfield instead. He ticked along, and Raina followed suit – the pair putting on 54 together for the third wicket.
When Raina departed in the 12th over, India were marginally shy of the required rate, but Kohli’s assured presence warded off panic. He let Yuvraj play himself into some kind of form, and kept India striding confidently toward the total. Memorably bludgeoning huge, consecutive sixes off Herath, Yuvraj also produced his most substantial innings since early 2014 – an 18-ball 35.
There were flashes of aggression from Kapugedera and Milinda Siriwardana, who put on 43 runs off the 31 balls they had together. Siriwardana even launched Ravindra Jadeja into the sightscreen, then nurdled him to the third man fence, in successive deliveries. But, as has often been the case in recent India v Sri Lanka matches, Ashwin dealt a decisive blow, removing Siriwardana in the 17th over, before Dasun Shanaka ran himself out off a free hit, a few balls later.
Virat Kohli (56 not out) once again played the central role in India’s 5-wicket win over Sri Lanka. With this win, India enterd the Final of the Asia Cup T20. India are unbeaten in the tournament so far. There are some more positives for India from this match. Yuvraj Singh (35 off 18 balls) finally showed some stroke-making of his past self. Though he still looked shaky but today’s innings should give a lot of confidence. Suresh Raina to played a good knock too.
