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Regular-article-logo Wednesday, 29 January 2025

Warming up in style- Kohli & Karthik hit centuries as India win by 5 wickets

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(AGENCIES) Published 02.06.13, 12:00 AM
Dinesh Karthik en route to his unbeaten 106 against Sri Lanka, in Birmingham, on Saturday

Birmingham: Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik smashed a century each as India geared up for their Champions Trophy campaign with a five-wicket win over Sri Lanka in their first practice match here, on Saturday.

Kohli (144) teamed up with Dinesh Karthik (106 not out) to rescue India from a wobbly start with a 186-run stand for the fifth wicket in just 23.2 overs to chase down a huge target of 334 with one over to spare.

India were reduced to 62 for three in the 13th over and then to 110 for four in the 21st over before Kohli and Karthik resurrected the innings.

Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews used as many as nine bowlers in the 15-a-side warm-up game and all of them were punished by Kohli and Karthik.

Kohli struck 11 fours and three sixes in his 120-ball flawless innings.

Coming in the second over with the scoreboard reading 5 for 1, Kohli was cautious at the start of his innings but played some delightful strokes after he settled down.

Karthik was more than an able partner to Kohli. He gave more strike to Kohli during their partnership, but at the same time also did not let it go any chance of scoring boundaries. He ended the match in style with a four as India reach 337 for five in 49 overs.

Karthik’s unbeaten 81-ball innings was studded with 12 fours and two sixes.

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni also got some useful time at the middle as he remained not out on 18 from 17 balls, coming after Kohli’s departure in the 44th over. Suresh Raina chipped in with a quickfire 31-ball 34.

India play their second warm-up game against Australia on June 4 in Cardiff before opening their campaign in the main tournament against South Africa at the same venue two days later.

India were in trouble early on a batsmen-friendly pitch as opener Shikhar Dhawan (1) was run out cheaply in the second over.

The other opener Murali Vijay could not contribute much as he was out for 18 in the 10th over.

Rohit Sharma (5), could not spend much time and lost a chance to acclimatise on English conditions ahead of the main tournament, as he fell in the 13th over.

The recovery job for India, in fact, began with Raina who scored a quickfire 31-ball 34 which was laced with four fours before he was out in the 21st over.

At the fall of Raina, India needed 223 runs for a win at an asking rate approaching eight an over but Kohli and Karthik kept their cool.

Kohli, in particular, played some beautiful shots. When he was out in the 44th over, India needed 38 runs from 37 balls with five wickets in hand.

Earlier, young left-hander Kusal Perera and seasoned Tillekaratne Dilshan took the Indian bowling attack to the cleaners as the Lankans posted a mammoth 333 for three.

Dilshan smashed a 78-ball-84 (9x4, 1x6) while Perera hit 82 off 94 balls (7x4, 3x6) as they added 160 runs in 26 overs. The Indian bowlers were unable to dismiss the duo as both retired in order to allow other batsmen get a decent hit out in the middle.

Seamers Pathan (0/45), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/58), Ishant Sharma (1/41) weren’t consistent with their length while spin trioka of Ravichandran Ashwin (0/45), Ravindra Jadeja (0/41) and Amit Mishra (1/53) also failed to make inroads.

With the ball nicely coming onto the bat and not much assistance from the pitch for bowlers, Perera and Dilshan hardly faced any difficulty in hitting through the line from the outset.

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