4th t20 India vs srilanka Nidahas Trophy: Manish Pandey and Dinesh Karthik Guide India To 6-Wicket Win Over Sri Lanka

4th t20 India vs srilanka Nidahas Trophy: Manish Pandey and Dinesh Karthik Guide India To 6-Wicket Win Over Sri Lanka A  Srilanka team  middle-order collapse against indian cricket team  paved way for Sri Lanka’s second consecutive defeat in the ongoing Nidahas Trophy series. Chasing the target of  153, India team  comfortably register  a six-wicket win despite an early hickup. The chase was led by some smart and steady batting by indian wicket keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik and Manish Pandey, who stitched an unbeaten 68-run stand which paved the way for India’s second successive win and took them to the top of the points table. Having won the toss in Colombo, India team invited srilankan team to bat first what turned out to be a 19-overs-a-side win over srilankan team due to a 60-minute delayed start. Both teams came in with one change each. While India brought in KL Rahul in place of delhi lefthander Rishabh Pant, Sri Lanka included Suranga Lakmal for the suspended Dinesh Chandimal. Sri Lanka continued with the strategy of going after the bowlers right from the start – a move which had paid dividends in the first two games. Danushka Gunathilaka was the first one to initiate the move, taking on Jaydev Unadakat. It didn’t help matters that the first-ball single had four more added to it after a throw by the fielder deflected off the bat and went for a boundary. It only compounded matters for the left-arm pacer as the next one was sent sailing over the deep midwicket fence for a six. 11 runs off 2 balls. However, the carnage was short-lived as Suresh Raina took a stunner at midwicket to send back the southpaw in the third over. Shardul Thakur’s short-pitched delivery was pulled hard but couldn’t go past Raina. Meanwhile, Washington Sundar was impressive, and began inflicting trouble by scalping the wicket of the in-form Kusal Perera. The reverse sweep, which had fetched him a lot of runs this series, brought his downfall on Monday (March 12) as he played the ball back onto the stumps while attempting the shot against the offspinner. Nonetheless, despite the early loss, Kusal Mendis ensured the pressure was sustained with a regular flow of boundaries. Upul Tharanga gave him company for 7.3 overs, which yielded 62 runs, but struggled all along en route his 24-ball 22. His painful stay at the crease came to an end in the 11th over when he was castled by Vijay Shankar. What seemed to have been a blessing in disguise with Thisara Perera tonking his first two deliveries for sixes, proved otherwise soon after. His dismissal and a decision to continue the onslaught without any caution paved way for a collapse and brought about Sri Lanka’s downfall. Wickets kept falling at regular intervals and even the runs dried up. Mendis reached his second consecutive half-century of the series but struggled thereafter. Only 44 runs were made in the last eight over for the loss of six wickets to finish on 152 for 9 – a total which would have left them mightily disappointed. Shardul Thakur finished with figures of 4 for 27 – his best effort in any form of international cricket. India also began in unconventional fashion with Rohit Sharma looking to go on the aggressive right from the start. He got off the mark with a pull for six and followed it up with a boundary off the next delivery. In a bid to continue that attack, he perished in the next over, hitting straight to Kusal Mendis at midwicket KL Rahul had just departed for 18 after Suresh Raina had powered his way to a 15-ball 27 with two sixes. India basically needed to go at less than 7 an over  DINESH KARTHIK is an enigma in the Indian cricket context. He’s been around so long, even if more so as the best amongst the rest when it comes to the fringes of the Indian team, you often end up ignoring his numbers like they don’t matter. Considering nearly five separate selection committees have shown faith in him, it’s understandable to feel that perhaps he really is the real deal. That if it wasn’t for MS Dhoni, Karthik would have been the next big thing that Indian cricket had sought. When you do pore into his numbers though and cerebrally dissect his lengthy international career, especially in the limited over formats, what shows up is a lack of match-winning or impactful displays with the bat. He has of course produced enough testaments of his innate talent to keep him in the reckoning, but not often enough has he headlined a crucial victory for his team. also read India vs srilanka Nidahas Trophy 2018: fan troll out of form Rohit Sharma is like an employee who doesn’t perform after pay hike, troll fans Monday provided the perfect opportunity for the 32-year-old to do just that. He’d walked into a scenario where the target wasn’t totally out of reach, even if India had lost four wickets. India basically needed to go at less than 7 an over. And Karthik grabbed the opportunity gleefully scoring an unbeaten 39 from 25 balls to guide India home.. Manish Pandey played his part too with 42 off 31 as India inched one step closer to the final of the Nidahas Trophy. It was a typical Karthik knock laced with delectable strokes and a number of judicious singles and twos as Manish Pandey played the perfect accomplice, finding the boundary whenever it was required. The two have been desperately vying to cement themselves in the middle-order for India in the shorter formats.They brought up their 50-run stand off only 37 deliveries and were soon left needing only a run-a-ball 18. Karthik smashed a couple of boundaries in the last over of India’s chase to help them reach the target in a jiffy. Here, even though in a way they were up against each other as well as the opposition, they showed just why the selectors could look at both of them as the leading candidates to fill the gap now and the MS Dhoni-sized hole that’ll be left behind once the former captain decides to step awa]]>