Virat Kohli continued his stupendous form with a classy 77 but India managed a below-par 130 for four against Sri Lanka who bowled brilliantly in the death overs in the final of the ICC World T20 here today.
Kohli struck his fourth half century of the tournament with yet another superb effort but Lankan bowlers applied brakes on a struggling Yuvraj Singh which certainly hampered the scoring rate to a large extent.
Kohli struck five fours and four sixes in his 58-ball knock as Yuvraj turned out to be a complete disaster as he looked completely out of sorts which even frustrated the in-form batsman at the other end. The last four overs produced only 19 runs due to Yuvraj's failure to get big hits.
While Kohli peppered all parts of the field with his blazing blade, Yuvraj found it difficult to even pick up Sachithra Senanayeke's 'doosra' and Lasith Malinga's blockhole deliveries. His struggle became so apparent that even Kohli's anger was palpable at the other end as the hero of 2007 triumph consumed delivery after delivery.
Rangana Herath (1/23) and Angelo Mathews (1/25) gave away only 48 runs in the eight overs as it became a Kohli versus Sri Lanka duel. Even Nuwan Kulasekara (1/29) had a decent day in office despite 16 coming off his one over.
When Yuvraj was finally out for 11 off 21 balls as he holed out in the deep, the loudest cheer came from the Indian fans, who were relieved to see him back in the dug-out.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni came in with only 11 deliveries left and found it difficult to accelerate the pace of scoring as Malinga and Kulasekara bowled the yorkers.
Ajinkya Rahane (3) looked completely shaky during his eight-ball stay at the crease. Angelo Mathews pitched it on length and the opener played it early trying to pull it and was played on.
Kohli entered the crease twirling his bat as Vivian Richards used to do during his playing days.
He clipped Kulasekara's inswinging half volley through the deep mid-wicket region for a boundary. Rohit got his first boundary when Senanayeke couldn't pitch the carrom ball properly as he pulled it towards square leg for a one bounce four.
