With the victory in the Asia Cup 2023 finals against Sri Lanka, India extended their record for most titles in the Asia Cup tournament with eighth win.
Mohammed Siraj on winning their Asia Cup 2023
India was scheduled to play the finals of the Asia Cup 2023 against Sri Lanka on September 17, at R. Premadasa Stadium, where India won by 10 wickets.
Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat where they struggled to score runs against Indian aggressive bowlers and ended up scoring only 50 runs losing all the wickets. With a fifty-one-run partnership scored by Indian openers, the side easily won the game. Mohammed Siraj was awarded with the player of the match while Kuldeep Yadav is awarded with the player of the series.
India won their last Asia Cup title in 2018 while playing the finals against Bangladesh where India won by 3 wickets. When asked about the match performance Mohammed Siraj said, “No biryani here. Have been bowling well for a long time. Was missing the edges earlier. But found them today. The wicket was seaming earlier, but there was swing today. Thought that I will bowl fuller because of the swing.”
“When there’s good bonding between fast bowlers, it’s helpful for the team. I was thinking it would be great if I could stop the boundary. My best spell. This cash prize goes to the groundsmen. This tournament wouldn’t have been possible without them.”
Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Perera opened the innings for Sri Lanka while Jasprit Bumrah opened the bowling attack. Pathum Nissanka was dismissed with 2 runs by Bumrah where Kusal Perera and Kusal Mendis was sent out with a duck and 17 runs by Siraj. After the fall of Dhananjaya de Silva for four runs Sri Lanka was down to five wickets scoring only 12 runs on the fourth over.
Other batters struggled against the terrific bowling attack of India, where Mohammed Siraj dismissed 6 batters while Hardik Pandya scalped three wickets. After losing all 10 wickets Sri Lanka scored only 50 runs in the second ball of the 16th over.
After folding Sri Lanka for low scores, Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill opened the innings while Pramod Madushan opened the bowling attack. Ishan Kishan scored 23 runs from 18 deliveries including 3 boundaries while Shubman Gill scored 27 runs on 19 deliveries which includes 6 boundaries. On the first ball of the 7th over, India achieved the target of 51 runs and won the game with 10 wickets.
India will be playing a three-ODI match series against Australia before the World Cup Warmup games. The first ODI match was scheduled to be played on September 22 at Punjab National Association Stadium.
