Nidahas Trophy 2018, Sri Lanka vs India 4th T20I: 5 things that went right for India

The fickle nature of the T20 format gives critics ample reasons to point fingers at players for their 'lack of form'. The Indian team, after having blanked out South Africa in ODIs and having come up trumps in the T20Is that followed, were at the receiving end of a backlash after losing out to the hosts in the opening game of the tri-series, but steadied themselves quickly and extracted sweet revenge in the fourth game, completing a comprehensive victory to top the table.

Here are five things that went right for the Indians in the game:

#5 Shardul Thakur's stifling spell

Although Shardul Thakur's resume is wafer-thin when it comes to actual international appearances, he has been linked with the national side and has studied the bowling from close quarters, apart from his IPL experience, over the last two years.

Now given a more prominent role due to the absence of bowling bigwigs, Thakur rose to the occasion by taking the steam out of the Lankan innings with Man of the Match figures of 4-27.

He used the knuckleball to stunning effect, mixing it well with his usual arsenal of cutters and slower balls as the Indians made regular incisions on the Lankan batting. The Thakur effort helped neutralise an off-day for Jaydev Unadkat, who was looted for 33 runs off 3 overs for the return of a solitary wicket.

#4 Spinners keep the total under check

Sundar continued his good form in the series

In the first game, one of the reasons why the Indians were vanquished was the inability of the bowlers to stop the Lankan top-order from going berserk. The Indian spinners combined to slow down the hosts' innings this time around, after it looked on course to launch itself towards a big score, especially with Kusal Mendis being at his belligerent best.

Washington Sundar proved why he is rated so highly, continuing his good form in the series with another valuable contribution, picking up two wickets for a measly 21 runs. While Thakur troubled the Lankans with his difficult-to-decipher knuckle-balls, Sundar, to some extent Yuzvendra Chahal, and a small contribution from Suresh Raina made sure that the Mendis onslaught was not enough for the hosts to reach a challenging score.

#3 Collective fielding effort

The Indian team stitched together a solid fielding effort

The Indian team has, over the years, improved their ground fielding by leaps and bounds (literally!). The team has some super safe pair of hands in the middle, who are dependable in pouching the white ball under lights without breaking a sweat.

Suresh Raina has been India's torch-bearer in fielding for years, and at 31, still looks just as sharp as he did a decade back. Manning the field on the leg-side, he kickstarted India's wicket-taking exercise by diving to his right and gobbling Danushka Gunathilaka mid-air off Shardul Thakur inside the 30-yard-circle, with the rest of the team following him thereafter and keeping the screws tight on the run-flow.

He almost took another blinder later in the innings, and was assisted by the rest of the unit as six of the nine victims went to catches, including commendable efforts from the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal, who helped himself to a tricky skier in the outfield to dismiss Thisara Perera, taking the steam out of the Lankan innings.

#2 Raina's quickfire knock

Raina laid the perfect platform for the batsmen to follow

There are very little margins in T20Is to play with, especially when the fielding team has a not-so-big target to defend. The Sri Lankans must have been smiling in their huddle after seeing the backs of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan early, but before they could figure out their next plan of action, Suresh Raina came in and ran away with the mounting pressure, playing a quickfire, counter-attacking knock to lay the perfect platform.

Manish Pandey and Dinesh Karthik quietly lapped up the runs, but it was Raina, whose flourishes just after the fall of the openers' wicket helped keep the run-rate down, even as an indifferent KL Rahul tried to provide some sort of a contribution after being drafted into the side for Rishabh Pant.

Seemingly unbothered even against the short ball, his sworn enemy, a sharp looking Raina ran hard, dived around and swung his bat hard, collecting two fours and as many sixes in a blazing 15-ball 27 that took the sting out of the chase.

#1 Crucial finishing partnership

Pandey guided India with a steady knock

Dynamism is Manish Pandey's forte, and he displayed just that during his match-winning innings in the game, steering the ship towards the shore after the unsteady waters it had to encounter with the fall of the top-order. He kept looking for gaps and ran hard between the wickets, ensuring that the run-rate never touched alarming levels throughout the chase.

Dinesh Karthik, has, time and again, stressed that he is the key to India's middle-order woes in limited-overs cricket. The newly-appointed Kolkata Knight Riders captain formed the perfect foil for Pandey, bringing in some much-needed calm as both of them went through with their business with minimum fuss.

Even Pandey was quick to concede in the post-match, that Karthik's presence helped absorb the pressure from one end.