Port of Spain: In pursuit of 202, India lost the key wickets of Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli before reaching 39/2 in 15 overs in the final of the Tri-nation ODI series against Sri Lanka here on Thursday.
Rohit Sharma was batting on 17 while Dinesh Karthik was on 2 after pacer Shaminda Eranga dismissed the left-handed Dhawan for 16 and Kohli for two. India now need 163 runs from 35 overs to win the title.
The more aggressive of the two openers, Dhawan was surprised by a delivery that reared up from short of good length, giving him little time to get away from the line as he was already shaping himself up to play it on the front foot.
Eranga then induced an outside edge from Kohli’s blade with a ball that straightened a bit on landing, leaving India in a spot of bother.
Earlier, India benefited immensely after Sri Lanka’s middle and lower-order batsmen committed hara-kiri, which saw the team lose eight wickets for just 30 runs before being bundled out for 201.
Sent into bat, Sri Lanka were sitting pretty at 171 for two in the 38th over, but lack of application saw them being packed off with seven balls left in their innings.
Ravindra Jadeja was the most successful Indian bowlers returning figures of 4/24 while there were two wickets apiece for Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin.
Bhuvneshwar made use of seaming conditions to send back Upul Tharanga and Mahela Jayawardene. Incidentally, the duo had punished India with a double-century partnership in the match that the young seamer was dropped.
Sri Lanka then rode on Kumar Sangakkara (71) and Lahiru Thirimanne’s 122-run partnership for the third wicket to stage a fightback before their innings disintegrated largely due to some mindless batting. Thirimanne scored 46 off 72 balls.
From a comfortable position with about 12 overs to go, Sri Lanka were left licking their wounds at 193 for seven in the 46th over when skipper Angelo Mathews got out. None of the last six batsmen could reach double figures.
Sri Lanka made a cautious start but after reaching 27 in the seventh over, the islanders suffered their first blow when Bhuvneshwar changed his angle to induce an inside edge from Upul Tharanga.
The ever-consistent Bhuvneshwar was at it again, in the 14th over, as he removed Jayawardene with an innocuous delivery that moved a bit on landing at the Queen’s Park Oval.
Sangakkara came in at 49 for two in the 14th over, and along with Thirimanne brought up their 100 partnership in the 36th over.
It was the start of batting powerplay and Lanka were straightaway on the money with both Sangakkara and Thirimanne going after the Indian bowlers.
However, after the dismissal of the two players, the remaining Sri Lankan batsmen simply failed to negotiate the Indian bowlers and fell like a pack of nine pins. (PTI)