Ashish Gupta | 2:11am BST 24 September 2023
What was anticipated to be an exhilarating contest between the 2 Asian heavyweights, turned out to be a sterile encounter, no less than from the attitude of Sri Lankan followers.
On Sunday, Sep seventeenth, 30,000+ Sri Lankan followers in R. Premadasa Stadium couldn’t have ready in any method for what was coming for them. The Asia Cup closing that was purported to final for no less than 7 hours ended earlier than one might full a mean Hollywood film.
On an overcast day in Colombo, Sri Lanka gained the toss and elected to bat first. By the tip of the match, successful the toss was the one factor that went effectively for the Sri Lankan workforce on the day of the ultimate.
90 minutes later, they have been bundled out for the bottom ever whole (50 runs) registered within the closing of a championship.
The earlier lowest whole was 54, guess in opposition to who? It was India within the Champions Trophy closing in 2000 in opposition to Sri Lanka in Sharjah.
On this gloomy morning, if Sri Lankan batsmen have been anticipating Bumrah to be a much bigger menace within the closing, they have been mistaken and had no clue what Siraj had in retailer for his or her batsmen.
Siraj bowled the spell of his life and one thing that no less than Sri Lankan followers won’t ever need to bear in mind.Â
The Hyderabadi stalwart took 6 wickets in his 7 overs for 21 runs, and one maiden over.Â
His miraculous bowling figures additionally included a 4-wicket over, which has solely occurred thrice in ODIs earlier than this match (Chaminda Vaas for SL, Mohammad Sami for Pak & Adil Rashid for Eng).
In all honesty, there have been no demons within the pitch.Â
It was only a good previous spell of relentless tight bowling from the Indian seamers and a few poor shot choice from the Sri Lankan batters, which left their followers completely upset.
In spite of everything, what number of occasions in ODI cricket do you see 4 slips, one leg gully and simply 1 fielder on the legside? Such was the precision that Siraj was bowling with.
It solely took Siraj 16 balls to finish his fiver and by that point, Sri Lanka was already floundering at 12/6 in 5.4 overs.
Bumraj picked the first wicket of the SL innings and no matter was left after Siraj’s turmoil, Hardik Pandya did the honours by ending with a spell of three for 3 in 2.2 overs.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma didn’t waste any probability to show full domination, so he determined to ship out Ishan Kishan to open the innings together with Shubman Gill.
half-hour later, the match was already over and India accomplished a thumping 10 wicket win in opposition to Sri Lanka to win the Asia Cup title for the eighth time.
With this win, India lastly ended their 5-year drought of failing to win a multi-team event.
The Asia Cup 2023 closing turned out to be a day that Indian followers will at all times cherish. So far as Sri Lanka is worried, they’ve lots to ponder and put together for the upcoming 50 over World Cup in India.
