Kohli steers India into Asia Cup final

Cricket365
March 3, 2016

Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 56 to guide India to a convincing five-wicket victory, with four balls remaining, over Sri Lanka in a T20I in Mirpur on Tuesday, and into the Asia Cup final.

Chasing a victory target of 139, India were in early trouble as they slipped to 16 for two in the fourth over with both openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma back in the pavilion.

Kohli and Suresh Raina combined to put India back on track in their pursuit of the runs with a partnership of 54 for the third wicket.

The left-handed Raina made his way to 25 before being becoming a victim of seamer Dasun Shanaka with India still having some work to do at 70 for three in the 12th over.

Yuvraj Singh then joined Kohli in the middle and proceeded to take the game of away from the Sri Lankans with a quick-fire 35 off just 18 balls, including three fours and three sixes.

India lost Yuvraj and Hardik Pandya towards the end to make the win look more demanding than it really was as Kohli and his captain MS Dhoni (11*) steered the team home in the final over.

Earlier, Sri Lanka overcame a poor start to post 138 for nine in their 50 overs, but the total was never going to be enough for a powerful India batting line up.

Chamara Kapugedera top-scored with 30 but it took some late hitting from allrounder Thisara Perera (17 off six balls) that got Sri Lanka over the 130-run mark.

Jasprit Bumrah, Ravi Ashwin and Pandya all claimed two wickets each as the India bowlers put the Sri Lanka batting line up to the sword.

With India already qualified for Sunday's final their final group game against the UAE on Thursday is effectively a dead rubber while Sri Lanka's last game in the league stage will be against Pakistan on Friday.