What a dramatic finale! What category of conflict does it fall under? In the 50-over game, 21.3 overs were played in total. Sri Lanka, the previous champions, lost the final with an extremely shameful performance.
India beat the 50-run mark by 10 wickets in 6.1 overs while chasing it down. Two openers Ishan Kishan 23 and Shubman Gill remained unbeaten on 27 runs. With 263 balls remaining and this victory, India won the Asia Cup for the eighth time.
Previously, only Mohammad Siraj had defeated Sri Lanka. By himself, he took 6 wickets. The Lankans’ batting was over after 15.2 overs with only 50 runs scored.
This is the second-lowest total in Sri Lankan history and the ninth-lowest total in ODI history overall. The Lankans were dismissed for 43 runs by South Africa at Pearl earlier in 2012.
Today at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, the captain of Sri Lanka, Dasun Shanaka, won the toss. Who would have thought this would happen after taking bat first?
The first over included a strike from Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah. In the third ball of the innings, Kushal Perera (0 from 2 balls), was caught out by the wicketkeeper while driving.
In the fourth over of the innings, Siraj kicked off the storm. With his first over maiden, Siraj got things going. In the following over, he displayed horrible form. He sent 4 Lankan batters back to the locker room one at a time.
Pathum Nishanka (2 off 4) was caught by Ravindra Jadeja in the first ball of the over off Siraj. He trapped Sadeera Samarawickrama (0) in lbw off the third ball. The next ball forced Charith Asalanka (0) to give a catch at cover.
Dhananjaya de Silva hit the hat-trick delivery for a boundary. But he made a big mistake without understanding the situation. Dhananjaya (2 balls 4) was caught by the wicketkeeper while playing outside the body in the next ball. Siraj took 4 wickets in that over.
Another victim of Siraj’s fourth ball fell in his subsequent over (the sixth of the Lankan innings). He blew the off-stump of Dasun Shanaka, the captain of Lanka. Fifer was completed by Siraj at 4 runs.
This is the fastest five-wicket haul with the ball which was shared with Chaminda Bhas. During the 2003 World Cup, the Sri Lankan bowler defeated Bangladesh by taking 5 wickets in just 16 balls.
In the end, Siraj took 6 wickets for just 21 runs including a maiden in 7 overs. Hardik Pandya took 3 wickets for 3 runs. Finally, the Lankans were all out by 50 runs.