Mohammed Siraj brought Sri Lanka down to their knees in just the first six overs of the match by picking a five-wicket haul. Jasprit Bumrah started off with a wicket off the third ball and then Siraj just blew the top off the opposition’s batting lineup by taking four wickets in the fourth over alone. He then came back and dismissed Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka, thus completing his five-wicket haul in just his second over. Sri Lanka were thus left reeling at 12/6 in 5.4 overs at that point. The nightmare continued for the home side and Siraj went on record figures of 6/21, the best by any bowler in an ODI against Sri Lanka. Hardik Pandya got three wickets, wiping off the Sri Lankan innings with two back to back wickets in the first two balls of the 16th over. Sri Lanka were all out 50, their second lowest score ever in ODIs. India opened with Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill and then pair put on 32 runs in just three overs. They soldiered on and chased down the total in the seventh over and India thus won the final with 10 wickets and 263 balls to spare.
Sri Lanka had won the toss and chose to bat first. However, the game ended up getting delayed by 40 minutes due to rain. Despite missing practically their entire frontline bowling attack, a mix of young bowlers and experienced part-timers has made scoring against Sri Lanka a difficult task while the likes of Kusal Mendis have provided the goods with the bat. However, their only defeat in their last 15 ODIs has come against India, who have looked as strong as ever. Their last game ended in a defeat to Bangladesh but it was one in which most of their key players sat out. Jasprit Bumrah and KL Rahul have made strong returns while Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli have all been purring. In this game, any chances that Sri Lanka may have seen of beating Indian seems to have blown away just minutes after the start of the match.
Both teams were dealt with injury blows in the run up to the final, with Sri Lanka arguably being the ones to be affected more by it. While India have lost Axar Patel for this match and possibly for the upcoming series against Australia, Washington Sundar has been flown in as cover. Sri Lanka, meanwhile, have lost their frontline spinner Mahesh Theekshana for the rest of this tournament. Sri Lanka have, however, said that they expect Theekshana to be ready for the World Cup next month. Sundar, meanwhile, has been named in the Indian second string squad for the Asian Games next month, which makes it unlikely that he would be included in the World Cup squad.
Highlights of the Asia Cup final between India and Sri Lanka:
1. Sri Lanka were blown away for a score of just 50 after winning the toss and choosing to bat
2. Bumrah got the breakthrough off the third ball of the match
3. Siraj then picked four wickets in his second over and Sri Lanka were left reeling at 12/5
4. He then completed his five-wicket haul in just his third over and added one more with the wicket of Kusal Mendis in Siraj’s sixth consecutive over
5. Hardik Pandya took one in the 13th over and Sri Lanka were down to their last 2 wickets in 40 overs
6. Ishan Kishan opened the innings for India with Shubman Gill and they chased the total down with a record 263 balls in hand
