Sri Lanka vs India, Only T20I at Kandy, , Aug 07 2012 - Match Result

Presentation time:

The Man of the Match is Irfan Pathan: "Wickets at the top of the order help. Mahela was going great guns. The ball was swinging and we knew that if we got wickets, it would be difficult for the SL batsmen. Our bowling coach has been keeping a good eye on us. God has been kind to me. I want to continue my good form."

Virat Kohli is the Player of the Series, for one match, yes, one match. He gets a bike for that.

Jayawardene: "We thought 150 was achievable. We're making a lot of mistakes. We'e still playing good cricket. When you come across a team like India it is tough. The SLPL should be a good preparation for the World T20."

Dhoni: "Overall we were really good. The ball was swinging till the 20th over so not easy to slog. We thought we were 15 short. Our strength is having the 7th batsman in the side. The wickets have changed here. When I first came here the ball used to stop a lot. But now the pitches have been relaid. I think we mastered our bowling and batting better than them."

Rahul, like the rest of us, cannot understand the logic in this presentation: "How in the world can the MoM and the Player of the series be TWO different people for a ONE match series? Someone please explain the logic. We also had a "Coolest Player" and "Quality Performer" award.. these advertisers just don't know when to stop."

On that note, we will leave you. Thanks for your company and the mails. There's the match report and stories from Abhishek to look forward to. Cheers!

End of match: India round off a successful tour, winning the ODIs 4-1 and this one-off T20. Quite a gulf between the two sides. Irfan Pathan's three early strikes pegged Sri Lanka back. This score was certainly chaseable, but losing Dilshan early didn't help. The Indian bowlers managed to contain them and that was crucial.

India have had a horrid time as tourists in the last year so this will come as some relief for India fans, for the moment. They're now No.4 in the ICC T20 rankings.

As for Sri Lanka, you could ask why they slipped after beating Pakistan. I think they're simply exhausted. They've been playing non-stop, some of their senior players played the full IPL. This tour must have taken a toll on them physically and mentally. Either the players, or the schedules need to be managed better. Maybe both. There's not much time to relax though. The Sri Lanka Premier League starts in 4 days. Then there's the World T20.Let's hope they're not hit with fitness issues then.

40 off 18. SL not out of it yet