India booked their place in the Final of the Asia Cup 2023 when they defeated Sri Lanka by 41 runs in a low-scoring Super Four encounter on a rank-turner at R. Premadasa Stadium on Tuesday.
20-year old Dunith Wellalage put up a grand show for Sri Lanka with excellent all-round performances – 5 for 40 with the ball and unbeaten 42* with the bat. However, the Indians were too good as Sri Lanka’s 13-match win streak came to an end.
After opting to bat, India began their innings quite comfortably putting away the Lankan seamers as Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill looked in ominous touch adding 80 runs in just 11 overs.
Wellalage’s best wicket came off his first ball of the spell as he brought Gill forward and beat him with flight, drift and turn to rattle the stumps. A couple of overs later, centurion from last evening, Virat Kohli found the mid-wicket fielder as Wellalage bagged his second scalp.
In the third over of his spell, Wellalage cleaned up skipper Rohit Sharma with a ball which kept low. Sharma top-scored with an elegant 48-ball 53.
KL Rahul and Ishan Kishan batted cautiously against the Sri Lankan spin barrage, compiling an invaluable 63-run stand for the 4th wicket. Wellalage was brought on for another spell and he immediately struck as Rahul chipped it straight back to the bowler after a fighting 39.
As the pitch was assisting the spinners heavily, skipper Dasun Shanaka turned to his unlikeliest part-time bowler Charith Asalanka to roll his arm over. He got the wicket of Ishan Kishan with a little help from a leaping Dunith Wellalage at short extra-cover. Wellalage completed his maiden five-wicket haul with the wicket of Hardik Pandya.
Prior to this, Asalanka had bowled only 14 overs in 6 innings with 1 wicket, having played 39 games. However, against all odds, the part-time spinner picked up 4 for 16 bowling 9 overs with the remaining scalps of Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav.
After a slight rain interruption, the Indian innings resumed and Maheesh Theekshana picked up the final wicket of Axar Patel as for the very first time in the ODI history, India lost all their 10 wickets in a game to spin. Sri Lanka also extended their world record of dismissing their opponents for the 14th consecutive game.
Sri Lanka’s chase of 213 got off to the worst-possible start as Pathum Nissanka edged behind for just 6 runs. Kusal Mendis was deceived by a Jasprit Bumrah slow ball as he chipped it straight to short extra-cover. Dimuth Karunaratne flashed one away from his body and was snapped at first slip as the home country was 3 down for 25 inside the first eight overs.
Sadeera Samarawickrama and Asalanka added 43 runs for the 4th wicket off 62 deliveries before the former played a rash shot by coming down the track and missing Kuldeep’s delivery as Rahul did the rest behind the stumps. Asalanka too perished in the next over as Kuldeep picked up his 2nd wicket.
Due to some persistent bowling by Jadeja, he snapped up the Lankan skipper for 9 as Sri Lanka were 6 down for just 99 runs when Dhananjaya De Silva and Dunith Wellalage got together to build a solid stand of 63 runs for the 7th wicket by absorbing all the pressure.
Wellalage and De Silva brought Sri Lanka closer before Jadeja struck again to end the latter’s impressive knock of 41 as the Lions were slipped to 162 for 7.
Wellalage ran out of partners as Kuldeep Yadav cleaned up the tail in his final over to finish with a 4-wicket haul.
Sri Lanka will take on Pakistan on Thursday with the winner to join India in the final. India’s final Super Four game will be against Bangladesh on Friday.
