Asia Cup23: India outplay Sri Lanka & reach final despite young Wellalage's gallant show

  

Team India has made it to the final of Asia Cup 2023.  The Indian team, captained by Rohit Sharma, won the ticket for the title match to be held on September 17 by defeating Pakistan and then Sri Lanka in two consecutive days.  In its second match of Super-4 played in Colombo, Team India defeated Sri Lanka by 41 runs.  In this match dominated by spinners, Team India once again saw the magic of Kuldeep Yadav, who did not allow Sri Lanka to reach the target of just 214 runs by taking 4 wickets.

 This match was not very easy for the Indian team because a day earlier Team India had defeated Pakistan by 228 runs.  In such a situation, they got a break of less than 24 hours and had to come on the field again.  However, seeing the way captain Rohit Sharma (53) started, there was no fatigue visible. Rohit and Shubman Gill (19) made an opening partnership of 80 runs, in which captain Rohit dominated.

 It was from here that the havoc of Sri Lanka's spinners began and its main character was 20-year-old left-arm spinner Dinuth Wellalage.  Wellalaghe, playing for the first time against India, was the first to bowl a beautiful ball, hitting Shubman Gill's stumps , the ball beating the outside edge after spinning .  Then in the next two overs, Virat Kohli (3)  and Rohit were also dismissed and created a sensation.  Kohli was caught at midwicket as he playing in the air and Rohit was beaten by an unplayable ball that kept very low. The 63-run partnership between Ishan Kishan (33) and KL Rahul (39) raised hopes but Wellalaghe broke it too getting Rahul caught and bowled .

On one hand the young spinner completed his 5 wickets, on the other hand part time off spinner Charit Asalanka dealt with the lower order including Ishan Kishan (33) with his off break caught superbly by Wellalage.  Akshar Patel (26) added some runs in the end and took the team beyond 200 runs to 213.  All 10 wickets of Team India were taken by the spinners, which happened for the first time against India.

 The score was not very big, in such a situation the Indian team also expected similar performance from its bowlers and Jasprit Bumrah-Mohammed Siraj did the same.  The Indian pace pair, which had terrorized Pakistan a day earlier, quickly disposed of the Sri Lankan top order.  Jasprit Bumrah sent Pattum Nissanka (6)  and Kusal Mendis (15)  back to the pavilion in the third and seventh overs, while Siraj took the wicket of Dimuth Karunaratne (2) in the eighth over.

 Meanwhile, a partnership began to blossom between Sadira Samarawickrama and Charit Asalanka, which looked to be dangerous but the star of the previous match, Kuldeep Yadav, showed his magic again.  He first took the wickets of Samarawickrama (17)and then Asalanka (22) due to some fine keeping by Rahul .  Then in the 26th over, Ravindra Jadeja took the wicket of Sri Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka (9)  and Sri Lanka's score became 99 runs for 6 wickets and clearly facing big defeat now . 

 

 The match seemed to be in Team India's lap but Dhananjaya de Silva and Wellalaghe had different intentions.  Especially the young spinner were desperate to make an impact against India in every way.  He targeted every bowler of India and made an excellent partnership of 63 runs for the seventh wicket.  It was here that Jadeja made India's comeback by dismissing De Silva (41) .  After this, Hardik and Kuldeep took the remaining 3 wickets and registered a strong victory by bundling out Sri Lanka for 172 runs.  Vellalaghe, who took 5 wickets in bowling, returned unbeaten after scoring a gallant  42 runs for Sri Lanka during which he showed great temperament and solid batting basics . His strong performances did not allow the adjudicators to give anybody from the winning team the man of the match . 

India's last match in super 4 is a formality and so they can rest a few key players during the Bangladesh match whereas Pakistan and Sri Lanka will lock horns in a must win game to reach the final .