T20 World Cup: Dhoni, Pathan steer India to 26-run win over Sri Lanka in a warm up game

Riding high on the performance on skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Irfan Pathan, India beat Sri Lanka by 26 runs in a warm-up game for the World Twenty20 on Saturday. India scored 146 for five, riding on captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s unbeaten 55 and then Pathan took centre stage with an impressive five for 25 to skittle out the Islanders for 120 in 19.3 overs at the P. Sara Oval, says a report in The Hindu.

Continuing his fine run, Pathan ripped through the Lankan top order before coming back to dismiss the lower middle order in the end.  Set a victory target of 147, Sri Lanka received an early jolt as Pathan castled opener D. Munaweera in the last ball of the first over.

The 27-year-old then dismissed T. Dilshan with the last ball of his second over to leave the host reeling at 15 for two from the first three overs. Kumar Sangakkara (32) combined with Angelo Mathews (16) to resurrect the Lankan innings but with Balaji getting the better of the latter, the target seemed to be a distant one for the host.

Meanwhile John Wright writes in Hindustan Times that this T20 World Cup looks wide open with India slight favourites in terms of odds and sentiment. “But you could throw a blanket of even terms over the next seven teams with New Zealand and Bangladesh being the outsiders. What can be said about Afghanistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe, they cannot win the big thing. It will however be interesting to observe whether the minnows, Afghanistan, Ireland and Zimbabwe, are more competitive in T20 than in the 50-over format,” writes Wright, adding that the toughest group is that of Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh, where one of those teams will miss out making it to the Super Eights.

“All the other favourites should make it comfortably through the group stages unless the weather intervenes,” writes Wright, adding that India's success appears to depend on how desperate they are to win the Cup.

“Can they match the intensity of their long journey in the 2011 World Cup, where it seemed almost imperative for the team and nation that they prevail? In those tough and defining moments of tournament play, it is this hunger and desire that can carry you through those moments of crisis. In my time as coach, the biggest enemy at various times seemed to be success. Any major win or forward step of progress seemed to be followed by a period of time where our results were mixed. It wasn't until we found ourselves in the situation of having to win a game that our quality of play would pick up.”

According to a report in The DNA, one player eagerly looking forward to T20 World Cup is Chris Gayle, who summed up the mood in the team when he said: "It's time to get going...this is what we've come here for. The World T20 is 'gonna' be a cracker! You can feel it already. We've only been here 24 hours and already you get the feeling there is something special in the air," Gayle said on Wednesday morning. "We are away from home and we have to adapt to the conditions as quickly as possible. We want to make a solid start and look to put the other teams under some pressure.”