Nidahas Trophy 2018: Match 4, Sri Lanka vs India – Who Said What

One of the most important matches in the Nidahas Trophy the game was delayed due to rain. The game lost an over from either innings due to the same hindrance and it was the Indian captain Rohit Sharma who won the toss and decided to bowl first. Chasing has been the tone of the series and yet again proved to be the right call.

Batting first Sri Lanka could post just 152/9 despite getting off the mark to a flier. Kusal Mendis’ half century gave them enough runs on the board for the defence but a middle order collapse ensured it wasn’t a winning score. For India, Shardul Thakur was the pick of the bowlers as far as the numbers are concerned. He ended the game with figures of 4/27/

India in reply had a worse possible start losing the top order pretty early. But like so often, the experienced campaigners in the middle order took responsibility. Manish Pandey and Dinesh Karthik scored unbeaten 42 and 39 respectively to take India home. They won the match by 6 wickets and now are at the top of the Nidahas Trophy table.

After the win, Rohit Sharma said:

“Smart performance, especially from the bowlers. To restrict a batting unit like that, it was a great effort from the bowlers. The conditions weren’t easy for the bowlers, there was a bit of dew on the ground. Neither easy for the spinners nor the pacers, but they have executed their plans really well. Just continued where we left off against Bangladesh.

The bowlers came out and executed the ideas and plans really well. We discussed a lot of things and it was very much on display for everyone to see. We bat really deep, and we haven’t had a batting line-up like that in a long time. We have a lot of all-rounders, but the middle-order hasn’t had opportunities to bat in the recent past, but as you saw today, Manish and DK batted extremely well.

Can’t single out a performance, it was a complete team effort. We aren’t laid back at all, because all three teams are still alive in the tournament. They can all stand at four points. So we need to continue the momentum from hereon. The new guys have all taken their opportunities and made good use of it.”  

Man of the Match Shardul Thakur said:

“I loved it. Happy to receive the award. Always dreamt of winning a game for India and here I am. Frankly there were some nerves but no pressure. Nothing special, we just discussed how to execute our plans and it worked out for the better today.”

Sri Lankan skipper Thisera Perera said:  

“This is not a 152-run wicket. The batting did well initially, but the middle-order failed. We were 30-40 runs behind. 175-180 would have been competitive and could have been defended. First 6 overs, we couldn’t execute the bowling plans. We’ll take the positives from the match and we’ll see what we can do next match. Next game is a must-win, and I’m sure we can give our 100% next match and win the game.”