On a surface that proved to be a test of mettle for batters, India overcame a tough challenge from Sri Lanka and came out victorious by 41 runs securing a place in the final of the Asia Cup. After an initial onslaught, the Indian batsman lost all 10 wickets to Sri Lankan spinners and was bowled out for 214. Rohit Sharma was quite attacking in approach and stood behind his bowlers. Rohit Sharma showed signs of a true leader as defending a small target was never easy.
In reply, the pace bowling duo took the wind out of the Sri Lankan sails by wreaking havoc in the top order inside the powerplay. The middle and lower order put up a fight, but India held on to their nerve to secure a famous win.
Indian bowlers had to bring out their A-game against the Sri Lanka batters as they had a modest target to defend after being bundled out by the Lankan spinners. Youngster Dunith Wellalage was the pick of the bunch as he picked up 5-wickets that included the scalps of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, and Virat Kohli. Rohit Sharma was the sole batter in the Indian lineup who got going, as he scored 53 runs off 48 deliveries before the spinners were unleashed.
India won the toss and decided to bat first, and the openers looked set to repeat their heroics against Pakistan as they raced to an opening partnership of 80 runs in the first 11 overs. Rohit and Gill dominated the Lankan pacers, with Rohit got to 10,000 runs in ODIs. The Sri Lankan skipper decided to introduce Dunith Wellalage in the 12th over, and that turned out to be a turning point in the game.
The match was played on a different surface from the previous day, and the ball was expected to turn early on. Welllalge came into bowl when India were at a score of 80-0, and inside his first three overs he had dismissed India’s top 3 batsmen. Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul steadied the innings the innings, but the scoring rate dipped considerably due to the wickets that fell. They put up a partnership of 61 runs for the fourth wicket.
India seemed to be in a comfortable position at 154-4, but Rahul and Ishan fell one after the other, leading to the test of India’s long tail with Axar Patel batting at number 8. Axar struck a valuable 26 runs, taking India past 200. India lost all 10 wickets to spinners, first time it had happened in history, with Dunith Wellallage picking 5 and Charith Asalanka picking 4 wickets respectively.
Jasprit Bumrah and Mohd Siraj opened the bowling for India, and they wreaked ravage in the Sri Lankan top order with the scorecard reading 25 for 3 inside the eighth over. Charith Asalanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama tried to stage a comeback by stitching a 43-run stand for the fourth wicket. Kuldeep Yadav broke the partnership as he bowled one that turned from outside the off-stump, to which Samarawickrama stepped out and got stumped by KL Rahul. This was followed by the dismissal of Asalanka, who was caught by KL trying to induce a sweep.
Dhananjaya de Silva and skipper Shanaka added another valuable 26 runs for the sixth wicket, before Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Shanaka exposing the Sri Lankan tail. Dunith Wellalage came into bat and replicated his bowling performance with the bat as well, and along with de Silva they scored runs freely bringing their team closer to the total. Team India changed their tactics and field settings, which reflected in the scoring rate, as 4 quite overs of Bumrah and Pandya went by for just nine runs.
India finally got their well-deserved opening when Dhananjaya de Silva got out trying to be aggressive. The end followed swiftly as India wrapped up the tail with last three following within 10 runs. India ended Sri Lanka’s 13-match winning streak, while also assuring their spot in the finals.
Definitely looking to play on pitches like this to see what we can achieve, we might as well come here and play on pitches like these – Rohit Sharma
Indian captain Rohit Sharma was speaking in the post-match presentation and praised his players for their performance in such pitch conditions, and Rohit Sharma said that India should continue playing on such pitches to test their temperament. Rohit Sharma lauded Hardik Pandya for his very economical bowling, as he looked threating every time he came on to bowl.
“He has worked really hard in his bowling for the last couple of years. It doesn’t happen overnight and it’s pleasing to see. He looked like taking a wicket off every ball. Was not an easy target to defend as the pitch got easier at the end and we had to put it consistently in one area and I think we did quite well” said Rohit Sharma.
The skipper Rohit Sharma was also happy about the bowling of Kuldeep Yadav as he carried on his fine form from the previous match, picking 4 wickets today.
“For the past year or so bowling really really well. He has done a lot of hard work on his rhythm. He went back to the drawing board and worked on it. The ball is coming out nicely and you can see the results in the last 10 ODIs” he added.
India have secured a place in Sunday’s final, but will play Bangladesh in the last match of Super 4 before that.