Right after the 41 runs defeat against India in the 4th match of the Asia Cup 2023 Super Four round, Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka said that they “didn’t expect this kind of wicket”.
Dasun Shanaka on Losing Against India in Asia Cup 2023 Super Four
Sri Lanka, who won their first Super Four game of the tournament against Bangladesh by 21 runs, is expected to continue their aggression in the match against India on September 12.
But the Sri Lankan batters struggled to withstand India’s aggressive bowling attack and fell short by 41 runs at the end. India also brings an end to Sri Lanka’s 13-match winning streak in ODIs. Since June 2023, Sri Lanka won all their ODI games and surpassed South Africa’s 12-match winning streak.
Right after a 228-run victory against Pakistan on the previous day(September 11), India made a strong performance against Sri Lanka and handed a 41-run defeat to Sri Lanka.
With the victory against Sri Lanka, India advanced to the Asia Cup 2023 Final game scheduled to be played on September 17 at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
Following their defeat against India, the Sri Lanka captain said “We didn’t expect this kind of wicket, I thought it was a batting wicket but we adjusted well, especially Wellalage, DDS and Asalanka. The luxury of two genuine batters, they have been bowling in the nets and I know their real potential, today I had the option of using them today”.
“Seeing the last game against Bangladesh I knew he (Wellalage) would do something special today, he took Kohli’s wicket and I was pretty sure it was his day and will take a couple more wickets”, Dasun Shanaka said.
Winning the toss, India chose to bat where Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill opened for India while Kasun Rajitha opened the bowling attack. With the dismissal of Shubman Gill with 19 runs and Virat Kohli with 3 runs by Dunith Wellalage, Rohit Sharma scored 53 runs on 48 deliveries. With the dismissal of the skipper India is down to 91/3.
Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul backed India with 33 and 39 runs respectively. But Wellalage and Asalanka were desperate to take wickets and dismissed other batters Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja with low figures. With their dismissal, India was down to 6 wickets for 172 runs.
Axar Patel tried to help India by increasing the score but the other batters could not withstand the bowling attack from Sri Lanka. Dunith Wellalage was terrific as he dismissed five wickets and he became the youngest Sri Lankan player to have a five-wicket haul in ODI games. Charith Asalanka was also impressive as he dismissed four wickets. On the final over, Theekshana dismissed Axar Pater and folded India for 213 runs.
With a target of 214, Sri Lanka started their innings where the opener Pathum Nissanka was sent out with 6 runs by Jasprit Bumrah. With Kusal Mendis’s dismissal on 15 runs by Bumrah, Dimuth Karunaratne was sent out with 2 runs by Siraj. Sri Lanka was down to 25/3 on the 8th over. Sadeera Samawickrama and Charith Asalanka scored 17 and 22 runs and were sent out by Kuldeep Yadav.
With fall of wickets in regular intervals, Dhananjaya de Silva came to the rescue as he scored 41 runs and Dasun Shanaka was sent out with 9 runs by Jadeja.
Indian bowlers terrified Sri Lankan batters when Kuldeep Yadav scalped four wickets, while Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah dismissed two wickets each and Mohammad Siraj and Hardik Pandya scalped one wicket each. By the end, Sri Lanka lost all 10 wickets scoring 172 runs on 42nd over.
