Put in to bat first after losing the toss, India lost opener Rohit Sharma cheaply again and reached 37 for the loss of one wicket after 10 overs in the fourth match of the 2014 Asia Cup against Sri Lanka in Fatullah on Friday.
Openers Shikhar Dhawan (20*) and Sharma (13) struggled a bit at the onset with the variable bounce in the pitch. Dhawan showed some intent in the fifth over, hitting Lasith Malinga for back to back fours towards the end of the over.
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews introduced spin in the sixth over of the match with Sachithra Senanayake. He proved slightly more expensive than seamers Malinga and Mathews, who opened the bowling, but did get the team the breakthrough.
Sharma had stepped down the pitch quite a bit but missed the line of the Senanayake delivery which hit him on the pads. Though he felt that was reason to give him the benefit of the doubt, the umpire thought it was sure enough to give him LBW.
Mathews went off the field in the ninth over, letting Thisara Perera finish the over. What exactly the problem was remained unknown.
Earlier, defending his choice to bowl first, Mathews said: "The wicket looks pretty slow today so we want to bowl first. We have three spinners today - Ajantha Mendis comes in for Lakmal. We are comfortable with an extra spinner and the dew factor will come in later on so we thought of bowling first."
After the toss, Indian captain Virat Kohli said, "We would have liked to bowl first too, but we have a strong batting line-up to chase. We have brought in Stuart Binny for Varun Aaron. We saw yesterday how the Afghanistan medium-fast bowlers were bowling well and stump to stump so we thought of bringing in a medium-pacer."
Sri Lanka brought in an extra spinner, Ajantha Mendis, in place of seamer Suranga Lakmal. India also made one change, dropping fast bowler Varun Aaron to play all-rounder Stuart Binny.
Openers Shikhar Dhawan (20*) and Sharma (13) struggled a bit at the onset with the variable bounce in the pitch. Dhawan showed some intent in the fifth over, hitting Lasith Malinga for back to back fours towards the end of the over.
Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews introduced spin in the sixth over of the match with Sachithra Senanayake. He proved slightly more expensive than seamers Malinga and Mathews, who opened the bowling, but did get the team the breakthrough.
Sharma had stepped down the pitch quite a bit but missed the line of the Senanayake delivery which hit him on the pads. Though he felt that was reason to give him the benefit of the doubt, the umpire thought it was sure enough to give him LBW.
Mathews went off the field in the ninth over, letting Thisara Perera finish the over. What exactly the problem was remained unknown.
Earlier, defending his choice to bowl first, Mathews said: "The wicket looks pretty slow today so we want to bowl first. We have three spinners today - Ajantha Mendis comes in for Lakmal. We are comfortable with an extra spinner and the dew factor will come in later on so we thought of bowling first."
After the toss, Indian captain Virat Kohli said, "We would have liked to bowl first too, but we have a strong batting line-up to chase. We have brought in Stuart Binny for Varun Aaron. We saw yesterday how the Afghanistan medium-fast bowlers were bowling well and stump to stump so we thought of bringing in a medium-pacer."
Sri Lanka brought in an extra spinner, Ajantha Mendis, in place of seamer Suranga Lakmal. India also made one change, dropping fast bowler Varun Aaron to play all-rounder Stuart Binny.
Source: Cricket News
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