Sri Lanka v India, One-off T20I, Colombo : Who Said What

After the one sided Test series and One Day series, with India clean sweeping all the eight matches of the tour, the focus then shifted to the shortest format of the game, the T20s. Indian captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to chase looking at the damp conditions before the start of the match.

For a change, the Sri Lankan managed to display some sort of spark in their batting with the talented youngsters playing freely. Dilshan Munaweera showed one and all that it’s not just in the name people can draw a comparison with the great Sri Lankan batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan. Lankans managed to post a par total of 170 in front of the quality Indian batters.

India appeared at ease in the chase with KL Rahul looking in brisk touch. Virat Kohli continued to fill in his boots on tour as he top scored with his 82. Manish Pandey also chipped in with a vital half century and hitting the winning runs for the side as the visitors won the match by 7 wickets.

Kuldeep Yadav was nominated as the player of the match for his couple of wickets. Virat Kohli was adjudged as the man of the series. India clean swept the tour by winning all the 9 matches. No visiting team has ever managed to achieve the feat.

Virat Kohli

Winning captain Virat Kohli lauded his boys for doing something incredible. Kohli cited out that he worked hard to mould his game in all formats of the game. He concluded by putting in a few words for Manish Pandey.

Very special, hasn’t been done before. Credit to all the hard work the boys have put in. Evidence of the fact how hungry the players are in Indian cricket. Very, very happy as a captain. I look to back my strengths in T20 cricket. It’s something I’ve practiced very hard to mould my game to all formats. When you’re two-down chasing 171, we knew it won’t be easy. Manish was outstanding as well today.

Upul Tharanga

Losing captain Upul Tharanga felt that they were a few runs short of the required total. He also lauded the efforts of the Dilshan-like batsman in the team. Yet again he appreciated the knock of Indian captain Virat Kohli.

No we were 15-20 runs short. Munaweera batted really well. In the 10-14th overs we lost momentum. The way Virat batted was outstanding. That’s the difference between the two teams. Good sign for us that we fielded well.