ARRAYMIRPUR (BANGLADESH), March 1: India rode on fine knocks by Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh to defeat Sri Lanka by 5 wickets in their Asia Cup Twenty20 cricket match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium here on Tuesday and enter the finals.
Coming in after the early fall of opener Shikhar Dhawan, Kohli anchored the innings with an unbeaten half-century as India overhauled the 139-run target with four balls to spare. The Delhi lad remained not out on 56, with seven well-timed boundaries studding his 85-ball knock. Yuvraj produced a powerpacked innings, hitting 35 runs off 18 balls with three boundaries and an equal number of sixes.
Nuwan Kulasekara was the most successful among the Lankan bowlers with figures of 2/21.
The Indian run chase was off to a rocky start with openers Dhawan and Rohit Sharma departing early. But Kohli and Suresh Raina came together to bring the innings back on track. While Kohli was the more aggressive of the two, Raina gave him good support from the other end.
The duo batted patiently, finding the gaps for the occasional boundary to add 54 runs between them.
Earlier, Sri Lanka produced a competitive total of 138/9 in their 20 overs. Chamara Kapugedera (30) was the highest scorer among the Sri Lankan batsmen. Asked to bat first on a greenish pitch, the Sri Lankan batsmen never really managed to settle down and lost wickets at regular intervals.
SCORECARD
Sri Lanka: Chandimal c Dhoni b Nehra 4, Dilshan c Ashwin b Pandya 18, Shehan Jayasuriya c Dhoni b Bumrah 3, Chamara Kapugedera c Pandya b Bumrah 30, Angelo Mathew b Pandya 18, Milinda Siriwardana c Raina b Ashwin 22, Dasun Shanaka run out (Sharma/ Ashwin) 1, Thisara Perera st Dhoni b Ashwin 17, Nuwan Kulasekara run out (Kohli/Dhoni) 13, Dushmantha Chameera not out 2. Extras (lb 5, w 4, nb 1) 10, Total (9 wickets; 20 overs) 138 (6.90 runs per over). Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-15, 3-31, 4-57, 5-100, 6-104, 7-105, 8-125, 9-138. Bowling: Nehra 4-0-23-1, Bumrah 4-0-27-2, Pandya 4-0-26-2, Yuvraj 1-0-3-0, Jadeja 2-0-19-0, Ashwin 4-0-26-2, Raina 1-0-9-0.
India: S Dhawan c Chandimal b Kulasekara 1, R Sharma c Kapugedera b Kulasekara 15, V Kohli not out 56, S Raina c Kulasekara b Shanaka 25, Yuvraj c Kulasekara b Perera 35, H Pandya b Herath 2, M S Dhoni not out 7. Extras: (w 1) 1, Total (5 wickets; 19.2 overs) 142, Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-16, 3-70, 4-121, 5-125. Bowling: Angelo Mathews 3-0-16-0, Nuwan Kulasekara 3-0-21-2, Thisara Perera 4-0-32-1, Dushmantha Chameera 4-0-27-0, Rangana Herath 3.2-0-26-1, Dasun Shanaka 1-0-7-1, Milinda Siriwardana 1-0-13-0 � IANS
