Finance
On Tuesday, Rohit Sharma’s India team produced a great bowling showing to preserve a short total and snap Sri Lanka’s 13-match winning streak in One-Day Internationals (ODIs) at R. Premadasa Stadium.
In a low-scoring thriller, India defeated Sri Lanka by 41 runs in the fourth match of the Asia Cup’s Super 4 round, securing a place in the final.
The 213-run target was difficult to meet on this pitch, which proved difficult to bat on. The chase didn’t go well for the Lankans, who lost Pathum Nissanka in the third over and then lost two more wickets in the Power-play.
Two of the three wickets were claimed by pacer Jasprit Bumrah while Mohammad Siraj bagged the third.
Charith Asalanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama put up 43 runs for the fourth wicket before Kuldeep Yadav came in and sent both hitters out in successive overs.
However, Sri Lanka came back for the seventh wicket with to an amazing partnership between Dhananjaya De Silva and Dinuth Wellalage. In the late fightback, the partnership contributed 63 runs and dragged Sri Lanka close to win, needing 44 runs off 55 deliveries.
Dinuth Wellalage, the lone warrior, fought until the end as the wicket fell at the other end. The 20-year-old’s tenacious inning was the highlight of the match for Sri Lanka, coming after the youthful spinner stunned India with his maiden five-wicket haul. Virat Kohli praised him for his outstanding performance during the post-match handshake.
In the end, it was India’s spinners who changed the tide, as Jadeja claimed a wicket and Kuldeep finished the match with two wickets. He finished with dominant numbers of (9.3-0-43-4).
Earlier in the day, India won the toss and batted first, scoring 213 runs on a rough wicket that was difficult to bat on. Rohit Sharma displayed outstanding batting skills, scoring his second half-century of the tournament.
Apart from him, K.L Rahul batted purposefully in the middle overs once more, scoring 39 runs.
It was a historic day for Sri Lankan spinners as they bowled India out for the first time. The three from Sri Lanka Dimuth Wellalage (5-40), Charith Asalanka (4-19), and Maheesh Theekshan shared all the 10 wickets in the Indian innings.
Wellalage earned the title of ‘Player of the Match’ for his outstanding all-round performance, taking 5-40 and emerging as the top scorer for Sri Lanka with 42.
Wellalage said, “First of all I want to congratulate the Indian team. Unfortunately, we lost the match today, but we have one more game to make it to the final. Kuldeep Yadav is a great bowler, but I tried to play my normal game and stay positive. [How were you feeling?] From a small age, I worked hard and had a positive mindset. Want to thank my teammates and supporting staff.”
Winning captain, Rohit Sharma said, “It was a good game. For us also to play a game like that under pressure. Challenged a lot of aspects of our game. We definitely want to play on pitches like to see what we can achieve. [Hardik] He’s worked hard on his bowling over the last couple of years, and it’s pleasing to see how he bowled that spell. Not an easy target to defend. The pitch got slightly better towards the end so we had to hold our nerve and bowl consistently.
Losing captain, Dasun Shanaka said, “We didn’t expect this kind of a wicket, but after the first 10 overs we came into the match brilliantly with the spinners. The luxury of the two genuine batters bowling is great, They’ve done well in the nets but it was great how they performed.”
Brief scores:
India 213 all out in 49.1 overs (Rohit Sharma 53, K.L. Rahul 39; Dunith Wellalage 5-40, Charith Asalanka 4-18) beat Sri Lanka 172 all out in 41.3 overs (Dinuth Wellalage 42, Dhananjaya De Silva 41; Kuldeep Yadav 4-43, Ravindra Jadeja 3-33, Jasprit Bumrah 2-30) by 41 runs.
