The much awaited match between Sri Lanka and India took place on Thursday. But the result came out a bit unexpected. India, who went in the match as favourites were not able to defend a score of 321 and Sri Lanka hence won the game by 7 wickets.
Sri Lanka won the toss and invited team India to bat first. The opening pair, Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan again performed up to the mark. Both put up a partnership of 124 runs on the board. Rohit Sharma again missed a century scoring 78 runs. Shikhar Dhawan scored massive 125 runs smashing 15 fours and 1 six. After losing early wickets of Kohli(0) and Yuvraj(7), Dhoni and Dhawan handled the innings. Dhoni played an impressive knock of 63 runs in just 52 balls. Hardik Pandya got out on 9 and Kedar Jadhav played a quick innings of 25 runs in 13 balls. At the end, team India put up a score off 322 runs against Sri Lanka. Malinga picking up two wickets again proved his experience along with Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep, Thisara Perera and Asela Gunaratne picking up one wicket each.
Now it was the turn of young Sri Lankan team to prove their worth and register their first win in their tournament. However, India’s main seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked an early wicket of Niroshan Dickwella. Later part of the match was however not in the favour of India as the partnership for second wicket was of 159 runs. Dhanushka Gunathilaka made 76 runs and Kusal Mendis also played a sensible knock of 89 runs. Captain Angelo Mathews also scored a half century as well as scored the winning run for Sri Lanka. Kusal Perera and Asela Gunaratne made 47 and 34 not out. From the Indian side, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the only bowler to take a wicket. Sri Lanka won the match by 7 wickets in the 49th over.
This defeat will surely make India understand that the road to the finals is not easy and they have to work hard to defend their title.