Sri Lanka bowled brilliantly to restrict India to a below-par 130 for 4 on a slow Dhaka wicket in the final of the World Twenty20 on Sunday. Virat Kohli tried to take India to a big total with a 58-ball 77 but he was starved of strike thanks to superb death bowling by Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. His fifty came off 43 balls with 2 fours and 3 sixes. This was his fourth fifty of the competition and eighth in his international T20 career. They prevented India from scoring a single boundary in the final four overs giving away only 19 runs when India appeared heading towards a target of 160. They bowled wide yorkers beyond the reach of Indian batsmen and kept dangerous Kohli off strike. The batsman faced only seven balls in the last four overs before being run out in the last ball of the innings. Struggling Yuvraj Singh’s shocker of an innings (21-ball 11) took away India’s momentum in the end overs. To control the damage, bg-hitting Mahendra Singh Dhoni promoted him up the order hoping to score some quick runs but failed to connect on his way to a 7-ball 4. Rohit Sharma made a sedate 29 off 26 balls and put on 60 runs for the second wicket with Kohli before going back in the 11th over. He gave himself room but a subtle change of pace by Rangana Herath was enough to send his drive into the hands of Sachitra Senanayake at extra cover. The toss was delayed due to rain. The match was set to start at 7pm local time but was delayed by 40 minutes. In the previous match at this ground, Australian women clinched their third successive T20 World Cup title by beating England by six wickets in the final. Rain started soon after that match ended. India have stormed into the final as the only undefeated team in the competition. On the other hand, Sri Lanka won three of their four matches in the Super 10 group stage before they pipped out defending champions, the West Indies, by 27 runs by the Duckworth-Lewis method in a rain-marred semi-final clash last Thursday. India went into the finals with the same team that beat South Africa in the semi-finals but Sri Lanka made one change — Thisara Pereira replacing Sekkuge Prasanna. — bdnews24.com
