India breeze past Nepal

India once again had an easy victory. While this is a good thing as of now, it might prove to be a handicap later in the series. The Indian team has hardly been stretched in the matches they have played thus far. Today, India won the toss and put Nepal in to bat on a slow wicket at the Police Park Ground in Colombo. The match was scheduled to be played at the FTZ Sports Complex in Katunayake, but heavy overnight rains made the pitch totally unplayable.

The opening bowlers Salab Shrivatsa and Mrithynjay Tripathi bowled a superb line and did not allow the Nepal openers to score. They set up a platform for the spinners to attack. Yuvraj Singh gave the ball a fair bit of air, and got good purchase off the wicket. From his nine overs he picked up 4/15. Nepal could manage only 101 off their 44 overs.

In response, India's Manish Sharma tapped the first ball of the innings lamely back to the Nepal captain Binod Das. After that, Ravneet Ricky and Mohammad Kaif played with determination and batted steadily to see India through to 87 for 1. At that point Ricky grew impatient and threw his wicket away after making a fine 35. Yuvraj Singh smashed the first ball away to the cover boundary and then took India to an eight wicket victory. Kaif was unbeaten on 57.