Nidahas Trophy: India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets

TIL Desk Sports/ A combined effort helped India beat Sri Lanka by six wickets in the fourth match of the Nidahas Trophy Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket tri-series at the R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium here on Monday.

Chasing 152/9 target in a match which was curtailed to 19 overs due to rain, Rohit Sharma (11) and Shikhar Dhawan (8) could not provide the start India wanted. The duo was sent back to the pavilion in the fourth over with only 22 runs on board.

New batsmen Lokesh Rahul (18) and Suresh Raina (27), who were looking good at the crease, were dismissed after getting a good start. The first one to go was Raina in the seventh over. His time at the crease was cut short by Nuwan Pradeep when scoreboard was reading 62 runs.

Three overs later, Rahul got hit-wicket off Jeevan Mendis. But after that, Manish Pandey (42) and Dinesh Karthik (39) played sensibly and made sure that their team overhaul the target without any more hiccups. Together they forged an unbeaten 68-run partnership.

For Sri Lanka, Akila Dananjaya took two wickets. Earlier, put in to bat, Sri Lanka posted 152/9. The hosts lost their wickets at regular intervals. Apart from opener Kusal Mendis (55), no other batsmen contributed handsomely.