Nidahas Trophy 2018, Match 1, SL vs IND - Who Said What

The T20 International tri-series between India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh commenced on Tuesday with the hosts getting better of the Men in Blue. It was a completely different Sri Lankan outfit on the park in front of their home crowd and they easily thumped India by five wickets. Kusal Perera batted wonderfully and his blitzkrieg of 66 off 37 balls helped them steer in the chase. However, India will have to buck up quickly as they have their next game against Bangladesh a couple of days later.

After being invited to bat first, the visitors were off to a dreadful start as their skipper Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina were dismissed very early. But Shikhar Dhawan played a bright inning of 90 to propel his team to 174 runs for the loss of five wickets. Manish Pandey supported him well by scoring 37 runs while batting at 4. The score seemed to be enough in the first half the way the visitors batted but they didn’t know the Sri Lankan were going to come hard at them.

Sri Lanka, in their chase, lost Kusal Mendis early in the second over only for Kusal Perera to arrive. The happiness of the Indians was short-lived as he right away hunted the leather by scoring 27 off Shardul Thakur. The momentum was continued after that as every batsman had their say during their brief stint in the middle. Fittingly, it was Thisara Perera who ended the game for them with a boundary in the 19th over and Sri Lanka got off to a great start to the series.

India will now have to sort their issues quickly as they have to face Bangladesh in their second game in a couple of days time. The bowling needs to do well however and have to make a come back to stay in the tri-series.

Sri Lanka captain Dinesh Chandimal said,

We are very happy as a team. This is a very good start for the tournament. We will look to continue the momentum. Really happy for the side. The last series gave us a lot of confidence, thanks to management they have been really helpful during the practice sessions.

Credit goes to boys, they have done a great Job. He is doing an excellent job and we know how good we are as a team. Really happy.

Man of the Match Kusal Perera said,

This is my best innings, but I had better innings as well. I backed myself and practiced hard to hit the ball cleanly. Bowlers did a good job by restricting India to 174. Credit must go to them as well.

Indian captain Rohit Sharma said,

I think it was a par score, definitely something we could have defended. We could have accelerated a bit more towards the end. It was a decent wicket. The kind of start they got was amazing. A lot of credit must go to Sri Lanka, for their whole batting group.

I’m sure we will learn from our mistakes. I felt we’ve got enough experience in our bowling line-up. They are very much new into the scene, they have had enough experience having been in these situations before.

We all know on a wicket like that you need your batting as strong as possible. Our squad is well equipped with plenty of all-rounders and that offers the balance to the side.