India registered a comfortable five-wicket win over defending champions Sri Lanka and in the process, qualified for the grand finale of the Asia Cup Twenty20.
In front of a weekday crowd in Mirpur yesterday, Virat Kohli once again led from the front, remaining unbeaten on 56 off 47 balls as India chased down their target of 139 with four balls to spare.
In pursuit of the target, India were in a spot of bother early on, losing both their opening batsmen Shikhar Dhawan (one) and Rohit Sharma (15) upfront.
An in-form Kohli however, stood up to the challenge and alongside Suresh Raina (25), added 54 crucial runs for the third wicket.
Following Raina’s departure, Yuvraj Singh joined Kohli at the crease and played some delightful strokes en route to a quickfire 18-ball 35, featuring three boundaries and as many sixes. Yuvraj was dismissed with India still stranded 18 runs from victory but Kohli held firm, smashing seven boundaries in his 85-minute vigil. Alongside Kohli, captain MS Dhoni remained undefeated on seven.
Earlier, Sri Lanka posted 138/9 after being asked to bat first. The Lankans struggled right from the onset, losing wickets at regular intervals. Dinesh Chandimal departed after making just four while his opening partner Tillakaratne Dilshan (18) fared little better. Shehan Jayasuriya (three) followed the Lankan openers soon after, making things worse for the batting side.
Hard-hitting batsman Chamara Kapugedera tried to counter attack but took up 32 balls to score his 30 runs while Milinda Siriwardana posted a 17-ball 22.
Skipper Angelo Mathews appeared in fine touch but was dismissed after making a 19-ball 18 as the Lankan batsmen were found wanting at times.
However, some lusty blows at the end by Thisara Perera and Nuwan Kulasekara guided their side to a fighting total of 138.
The Indian bowlers bowled superbly and kept the opposition batsmen quiet till the end with Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Ravichandran Ashwin bagging two wickets each.