India managed to restrict Sri Lanka to 264/7 but they may still be disappointed as the Kohli-led side had their opponents reeling at 55/4. It was Jasprit Bumrah who picked up the first two wickets to leave Sri Lanka in trouble. Then, his fellow Gujaratis Ravindra Jadeja and Hardik Pandya picked up one wicket each to leave Sri Lanka in a lot of trouble.
Hardik picked up the key wicket of Avishka Fernando who was looking in great form. But after that, the pair of Angelo Matthews and Lahiru Thirimanna steadied the innings while batting at a rather conservative rate. Ravindra Jadeja, brought into the team in place of Yuzvendra Chahal, got a wicket in his very first over thanks to a delivery which spun sharply and then completely tied up the Lankan batsman.
But Thirimanna and Matthews kept the innings progressing at a modest rate and ensured that they didn't suffer any further losses for a long time. But around the 35-over mark, the two batsmen started accelerating the innings and were successful for a time. However, Matthews got a life when he was dropped at wide long-on off the bowling of Jadeja and Thirimanna was dismissed attempting a big shot against Kuldeep Yadav. Jadeja went for plenty in his second spell after conceding at less than 3/over in his first spell of 7 overs.
But Matthews had got into a nice rhythm and started to drive the innings forward with some brilliant shots that were timed brilliantly, on a pitch where the ball was holding up. He got good support from Dhananjaya de Silva who also played some good shots but more importantly, gave support to Matthews.
But India's Mr Dependable in death overs, Bumrah once again proved impeccable and kept Lanka back from going all out on attack in the last ten overs. Some runs did come off the bowling of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Hardik Pandya. The wicket of Matthews in the penultimate over was a loss for Lanka as they, perhaps, lost out on 10-15 runs. However, on a pitch where the ball is not coming on to the bat that easily, this target may be more difficult for India than what may be expected.
