India prevail over home team Sri-Lanka in spin friendly conditions to reach Asia Cup 2023 final

on
Asia Cup 2023

Indian Cricket fans witnessed a heart-throbbing clash in the Asia Cup 2023 Super 4 stage as India defeated home conditions-favored Sri Lanka at Colombo’s iconic Premadasa Stadium. In a contest where the pitch heavily favored bowlers, especially spinners, India emerged victorious by 41 runs, showcasing their mastery over the conditions.

It was an Asia Cup classic as the contest demanded a lot of patience and discipline from the players due to tricky Pitch and weather conditions in Sri-Lanka. None of the sides were ready to accept defeat and displayed great levels of nerve but in the end, Rohit Sharma’s side became the first team to book tickets for the ODI Asia Cup 2023. 

In some sense, the defending champions defeated the defending champions. While Sri-Lanka won the Asia Cup 2022 edition, played in the T20 format while India the 2018 edition, played in the ODI format.

The Rahul Dravid coached team will enter the final as reigning champions and their performance today took them one step closer towards winning the competition again. Back in 2018 when the Asia Cup took place in UAE, Rohit Sharma lifted his first major title as Captain of India and he has a chance of doing it again this time at Sri-Lanka. 

If India wins the Continental event then it will boost their morale and confidence when the ICC Cricket World Cup takes starts from October at home soil. India have 2 games remaining, including their last Super 4 tie against Bangladesh on September 15 before Asia Cup 2023 Finale.

If we talk about the match, then from India’s perspective it was of course won by the efforts of bowlers but also because of India’s lower batting order. After Rohit Sharma scored his 51st half-century (his 3rd Asia Cup 2023) and completed 10,000 ODI Runs, India faced plenty of complications caused by Sri-Lankan spinners.

All of India’s 10 wickets were picked by Spinners – 2 designated and 1 part time. 20-year-old Dinuth Wellalage removed the likes of Rohit Sharma (53), Shubman Gill (19), Virat Kohli (3), KL Rahul (39) and Hardik Pandya (5) to complete his first ever 5-wicket haul in ODIs that too in his first ever outing against the Men in Blue.

From the other end, part time right-arm off-spinner Charith Asalanka turmoiled the following batters, making full use of the spin friendly conditions. He collected 4 wickets – Ishan Kishan (33), Ravindra Jadeja (4), Jasprit Bumrah (5) and Kuldeep Yadav (0) respectively.

All-rounder Axar Patel and Pacer Mohammad Siraj had the onus of taking India to at least 200 because at one point it looked very unlikely to happen. From 186/9, the duo took India to 213 with Axar Patel amassing 26 bonus runs and Siraj scoring 5 before another Maheesh Theekshana got rid of the former.

In response, Sri-Lanka started well but failed to remain patient. When they will look back at this loss, they would regret for not sticking on to the crease longer and knit effective partnerships but the Indian bowling line-up’s constant pressure kept them away from doing so.

The openers Pathum Nissanka (6) and Dimuth Karunaratne (2) scored combined 8 runs while no.3 & 4 Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama scored 15 and 17 respectively. Charith Asalanka tried his best but got out for 22 while Dhananjaya de Silva and star boy Dinuth Wellalage shined with the bat as well.

Silva got out for 41 while Wellalage remained 42 not out as Bumrah & Jadeja picked 2 wickets, Siraj and Pandya collected 1 scalp each with Kuldeep Yadav taking the other 4 wickets. Dinuth Karunaratne was adjudged the Man of Match for his bowling figures 40/5 in 10 overs followed by a 42-run inning with the Bat.

Related posts:

Shreyas IyerAsia Cup 2023: Shreyas Iyer sidelined for Super 4 clash against Sri-Lanka Dinuth WellalageDunith Wellalage whiplashes India’s batting orderwith maiden 5-wicket haul in Super 4 tie Jos-Buttler-EnglandJos Buttler wants to “repay” England with strong Test performances Shreyas Iyer joins Yashpal Sharma as the 2nd Indian Batter with most ODI innings without a Duck