COLOMBO – Spinners Dinuth Wellalage and Charith Asalanka showed magic with the ball as Sri Lanka restricted India to 213 in 49.1 overs in Super Four match of the ongoing Asia Cup 2023 in Colombo on Tuesday.
But it was not enough for the defending champions who faltered against Indian bowlers and India won the match by 41 runs. Chasing the 213-run target set by India, the entire Sri Lankan squad collapsed at 172 in 43.3 overs.
In the first innings, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma took a strong start as he made 53 off 48. However, the visitors suffered early losses after Shubman Gill (19) and Virat Kohil (3) were dismissed by Wellalage.
Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul and Axar Patel made 33, 39 and 26 runs, respectively. However no other player could cross the 10 runs mark.
Sri Lanka’s young sensation Wellalage finished with a maiden five-for while Asalanka took four wickets. Maheesh Theekshana took one wicket.
Earlier, India won the toss and decided to bat first.
On Monday, the Rohit Sharma XI displayed their A-game, cruising to a record 228-run win over Pakistan in high octane game in the Asia Cup, which was marred by showers.
Reclaiming the dominance in today’s game, India stand with 2 points and an impressive net run rate of +4.560. Indian openers including Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, and Kuldeep Yadav fired a salvo with their bat, eyeing to secure a spot in the Asia Cup final.
A hope for Pakistan
Pakistans hope for Asia Cup finals have also increased after Indias win against Srilanka.
Pakistan will now have to beat Sri Lanka to qualify for Finals now.
Colombo Weather Today: The MET department predicted at least 60 percent chance of rain at the R. Premadasa ahead of toss in the India vs Sri Lanka match on Tuesday.
Rain threat looms
Sri Lankan Met Office predicted 60 percent chance of showers in the afternoon when the India vs Sri Lanka match got underway.
Downpour will reportedly come down to around 40 percent by evening while there is no provision for a Reserve Day for this Super 4, unlike Pakistan-India’s game.
If we look back, the Lankan Lion were on a 13-match winning streak in the one-day format, the second-best in history.
India vs Sri Lanka Squads
India: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul(w), Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammed Shami, Suryakumar Yadav, Axar Patel, Shreyas Iyer, Prasidh Krishna, Tilak Varma
Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis(w), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dasun Shanaka(c), Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha, Matheesha Pathirana, Kusal Perera, Binura Fernando, Pramod Madushan, Dushan Hemantha
