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Cricket PlayersVirat Kohli-led India to face Sri Lanka in T20 cricket tri-series opener at Colombo
The Nidahas Trophy involving India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh is being held to mark 70 years of Sri Lanka’s independence. The tri-series was earlier set to be played from March 8-20, but it has been brought forward by a couple of days
India and Sri Lanka will face off in the first match of the upcoming T20 tri-series on March 6. The series has been named ‘Nidahas Trophy’, also involving Bangladesh as the third team.
The trophy is being held to mark the 70 years of Sri Lanka’s independence. The tri-series was earlier set to be played from March 8-20, but it has been brought forward by a couple of days, reported Cricbuzz.
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The idea behind moving the series two days before its earlier start date was to have the final being held on Sunday, and not on Tuesday as per the initial schedule.
All matches will be played at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, and will begin at 07:00pm local time.
The report added that the Indian and Bangladeshi cricket teams will be reaching Sri Lanka on March 4, with the Virat Kohli-led team not having any warm-up match in the itinerary. Bangladesh, on the other hand, will play one tour game before the tri-series.
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By organising the Nidahas Trophy, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is hoping to earn a minimum of USD 6.5 million through the sale of rights.
All the three competing teams have had plenty of cricket between themselves in the recent past. Apart from India’s one-off Test in 2015 followed by a limited-overs series in Bangladesh, the Bangladeshi side also toured India in early 2017 for their maiden Test appearance in the neighbouring country.
India toured Sri Lanka in mid-2017 and won each of their matches across formats, making it 9-0, but towards the end of the year, the Sri Lankans turned up with much better performance on their tour of India across formats.
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Recently, Sri Lanka grabbed all the trophies that were on offer during their tour to Bangladesh. Having made a poor start to the ODI tri-series losing to the hosts as well as Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka won the tournament. Sri Lanka also clinched the two-Test series 1-0 and the two-match T20I series 2-0.
Nidahas Trophy schedule: March 6 - Sri Lanka v India; March 8 - Bangladesh v India; March 10 - Sri Lanka v Bangladesh; March 12 - India v Sri Lanka; March 14 - India v Bangladesh; March 16 - Bangladesh v Sri Lanka; March 18 - Final
