Vineet Ramakrishnan/Zeenews.com
Colombo: India defeated Sri Lanka by 26 runs in the 6th warm-up game of the T20 World Cup here on Saturday at the P Sara Oval Stadium, Colombo.
HIGHLIGHTS» | SCORECARD» | The game as it happened...»
Chasing a target of 146 runs to win, Sri Lanka were bundled out for 120 in 19.3 overs courtesy Irfan Pathan’s five wicket haul. L Balaji also picked up three wickets.
Earlier, Propelled by captain MS Dhoni’s (55*) late pyrotechnics, India posted a competitive total of 146 runs with the loss of five wickets against Sri Lanka.
For the hosts, Sangakkara top scored with run a ball 32 runs. Sri Lanka were looking good to chase down the target after being 71/ 3 in 10 overs but lost their way after that. Irfan Pathan finished off the Lankan surge claiming three wickets in the 19th over.
But the big story of the day was an injury scare to Gautam Gambhir. In the third ball of the day the opener was hit by a Lasith Malinga delivery after beginning on a positive note hitting the slinger for a boundary off the first ball he faced. He was taken to the hospital immediately. READ COMPLETE STORY HERE»
India had a sluggish start to the match mustering only 56 runs in the first ten overs with the loss of four wickets. The top order went cheaply with Gambhir (retired hurt) for 5 runs, Sehwag 12 runs of 10 balls, Raina 12 (15b) and Kohli 8 (10b). Yuvraj Singh also departed cheaply for 11 runs.
But in the last 10 overs India scored 90 runs and upped the ante in the last 5 overs scoring 62 runs. Rohit Sharma supported the captain well scoring 37. They had a partnership of 78 runs.
TOSS: India won the toss and elected to bat first.
Teams:
India (From): MS Dhoni(w/c), Ravichandran Ashwin, Piyush Chawla, Harbhajan Singh, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Gautam Gambhir, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Ashok Dinda, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Virender Sehwag, Manoj Tiwary.
Sri Lanka (From): Mahela Jayawardene(c), Dinesh Chandimal, Shaminda Eranga, Kumar Sangakkara(w), Nuwan Kulasekara, Ajantha Mendis, Dilshan Munaweera, Thisara Perera, Lahiru Thirimanne, Angelo Mathews, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Rangana Herath, Lasith Malinga, Jeevan Mendis, Akila Dananjaya Perera.
On-field Umpires : SJ Davis (Australia) and SJA Taufel (Australia)
Reserve umpire : BF Bowden (New Zealand)
First Published: Saturday, September 15, 2012, 09:19