India’s T-20 Form continues to Rock!

India was playing a T-20 international game in over a year. The last T-20 game that the Indian national team played was in February 2008 in Australia and Australians hammered them back then. But the Indians were in good form and had just won the ODI series against the Lankans quite comfortably with a margin of 4-1. Also, considering that Sri Lanka rested 4 of their key players, India were clear favorites going into the match. And what a match it was! It was a very closely fought match with the pendulum swinging either way until the moment the Pathan brothers came together in the middle for India.
Going to the start of the match, Sri Lanka with a new captain won the toss (at last!) and decided to bat first. Jayasuriya provided the hosts with the perfect start by blasting around the Indian bowlers for a quick fire 33 of just 17 balls before he was brilliantly caught by Ishant Sharma off Irfan Pathan. But that didn’t deter the Lankans and they were well on their way to score over 200 runs in their allotted 20 overs. But the shrewd captain in Dhoni made the right bowling changes by bringing on the spinners and putting the brakes on the Lankan scoring rate. It was not to be the case though as towards the end of the Lankan innings the scoring rate got brisk before Ishant came back to bowl the last over of the innings by conceding only 3 runs. So, the Indians were set a target of 172 runs in 20 overs which wasn't considered a huge task considering that India had a very strong batting line-up.

But that was not to be! Sri Lanka struck early removing the openers in the first few overs. It was now consolidation time for India. Yuvi and Raina did just that but never allowed the run rate to fall. This was the phase when many believed that its going be a walk over the park for the Indians. At least until Dilshan introduced the spinners into the attack. That completely changed the course of the game, with the run rate moving southwards and the Indians started quick wickets. So, at the end of the 15th over, the equation looked something like India requiring 55 runs in 5 overs with just 3 wickets in hand. All seemed lost for India and Sri Lanka seemed to be the run away winners. But the script was to be changed again and in came the Pathan brothers for India. Yusuf Pathan scored 3 boundaries in the 16th over to leave the equation at 40 runs required off 4 overs. That was when Sri Lanka lost the plot. Dilshan brought back his seamers when Jayasuriya was bowling fantastically well and had a over in his kitty. That might have done the trick for Sri Lanka but instead it was the seamers who came on to bowl and gifted the game to India. Irfan and Yusuf combined well to hit some good boundaries and mixed it well with quick running between the wickets. Finally, India won the game with 4 balls to spare and it was ecstatic for the Indians while the entire stadium went silent in disbelief when Irfan hit the 2nd ball of the last over long over the boundary line for a six. Having won 5 of the 6 games that India played in Sri Lanka, the team is next headed to New Zealand at the later part of this month. Will the Indians keep up the tempo and pull out a series win against the Kiwis??? Only time will tell... But for now, rejoice the Indian victory and keep hoping for more such ones...