Rohit Sharma led India have qualified for the Asia Cup 2023 Final game with a 41-run defeat against Sri Lanka on September 12 at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
Rohit Sharma on Victory Against SL in Asia Cup 2023 Super Fours
Right after a 228-run victory against Pakistan on the previous day(September 11), India made a strong performance against Sri Lanka on September 12 and handed a 41-run defeat against Sri Lanka.
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.
But their game against India in Asia Cup 2023 Super Four put an end to their winning streak.
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.
Speaking on the victory, Indian captain Rohit Sharma said “Was a good game. For us also to play a game like that under pressure on a slightly challenging pitch. Challenging in a lot of aspects. Definitely looking to play on pitches like this to see what we can achieve, we might as well come here and play on pitches like these”.
Rohit Sharma praised Hardik Pandya and said “he has worked really hard in his bowling for the last couple of years”.
“[on Hardik] He has worked really hard in his bowling for the last couple of years. It doesn’t happen overnight and it’s pleasing to see. He looked like taking a wicket off every ball. Was not an easy target to defend as the pitch got easier at the end and we had to put it consistently in one area and I think we did quite well”, he added.
Rohit also made huge praise over Kuldeep Yadav who bagged 4 wickets at an economy rate of 4.50.
“[on Kuldeep] For the past year or so bowling really really well. He has done a lot of hard work on his rhythm. He went back to the drawing board and worked on it. The ball is coming out nicely and you can see the results in the last 10 ODIs”, Rohit added.
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.
