Asia Cup: India score 173/8 against SL; Rohit Sharma shines
India compiled 173/8 in the Super Four encounter of the Asia Cup against Sri Lanka at the Dubai International Stadium. Rohit Sharma played a captain's knock after the Lankans elected to field. He wreaked havoc even though India lost both KL Rahul and Virat Kohli. However, things went south for India, with the middle order perishing. Meanwhile, Madushanka took three wickets for Sri Lanka.
Unlike in the previous match against Pakistan, Team India made a sluggish start this time. Opener KL Rahul and top-order batter Virat Kohli departed early as India were reduced to 13/2 (2.4). The latter recorded a painful duck. Meanwhile, skipper Rohit Sharma held one end and played his shots sporadically. Suryakumar Yadav remained watchful in the Powerplay, a phase wherein India scored 44/2.
SKY and Rohit steadied India's ship after the Men in Blue suffered a batting collapse. The duo took India past 100, sharing a 97-run stand. However, both Rohit (110/3) and SKY (119/4) departed in quick succession.
Kohli recorded a four-ball duck. He was knocked over by an in-swinger from left-arm seamer Dilshan Madushanka. Kohli failed to open his account against Sri Lanka for the first time in T20I cricket. Before today, his lowest T20I score against the Lankans was 26. Notably, Kohli registered his 33rd duck for India in international cricket. Veteran Sachin Tendulkar recorded 34.
Rohit duly accelerated after the first six overs. He raced to his 28th half-century in T20I cricket off 32 deliveries. Rohit now has the joint-most 50+ scores in the format with Virat Kohli (32). The Indian skipper was all guns blazing thereafter. Rohit, who looked set to score a century, departed for 72 off 41 balls (5 fours, 4 sixes).
During the innings, Rohit became the first Indian to complete 1,000 runs in the Asia Cup (ODI and T20Is). He also touched the 3,600-run mark in T20I cricket. Rohit is the leading run-scorer in the format, having slammed 3,620 runs from 136 T20Is at a strike rate of 140.63. He also became the first Indian batter to hammer 100 T20I sixes while batting first.
Left-arm seamer Dilshan Madushanka turned out to be the pick of Sri Lanka's bowlers. He kept pulling back his length and garnered movement too. He took three wickets for just 24 runs in four overs. Madushanka removed Kohli before getting rid of both Pant and Deepak Hooda in his final over. The Lankan pacer conceded just four runs in his last over.
