Asia Cup 2023 Final: India win title after thrashing Sri Lanka

India secured a comfortable ten-wicket win against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup final after Mohammad Siraj's 6 for 21, left them with an exceptionally attainable target of 51,  the 24NewsHD TV channel reported on Sunday.

Set to chase a meagre 51, India comfortably completed the pursuit in 6.1 overs without losing a single wicket to lift their eighth Asia Cup title.

India’s new opening pair of Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan carried the momentum and dominated the Sri Lankan bowlers to script a statement victory for the former champions.

They  achieved the target in only 6.1 overs. 

Earlier, Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat first against India in the Asia Cup final in Colombo. The Lankan batting order collapsed before the attack of Indian bowlers as the entire team was bowled out in the Asia Cup final for 50.

As the match started, five Sri Lankan batsmen were sent to the pavilion in the first four overs of the match. Indian fast-bowler Mohammed Siraj dismissed four Sri Lankan batsmen namely Pathum Nissanka, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka and Dhananjaya de Silva in an over.

The home side lost their opener Kusal Perera (0) in the first over with just one run on the board.Sri Lanka failed to recover from Siraj’s demolition and he came back to add further to their misery by dismissing skipper Dasun Shanaka in his next over and completing his five-fer.

Wicketkeeper batter Kusal Mendi, who hung on for Sri Lanka then put on the highest partnership of the Asia Cup 2023 final for the home side with Dunith Wellalage before Siraj struck again.

Kusal Mendis remained the top-scorer for Sri Lanka with a 34-ball 17 which featured three boundaries.

Following Siraj’s dominance, Hardik Pandya put the final nail in the coffin by getting rid of the Sri Lankan batting tail.

He removed Dunith Wellalage (8) before wrapping up Sri Lanka’s dismal innings in his next over by dismissing Pramod Madushan (1) and Matheesha Pathirana (0).

Young all-rounder Dushan Hemantha remained unbeaten with a 15-ball 13 and remained the only Sri Lankan batter to amass double figures beside Kusal Mendis.

Notably, Sri Lanka’s 50-run total is now the lowest total in the Asia Cup history, breaking the previous record held by Bangladesh, who were dismissed for 87 runs against Pakistan in 2000.

Furthermore, Sri Lanka’s 50-run total is the lowest in men’s ODI history in a tournament final. It is also the third time this year that Sri Lanka have been bowled out for less than a hundred in ODIs.

Mohammed Siraj won man of the match with a 6/21, followed by Hardik Pandya’s 3/3 while Jasprit Bumrah had a wicket to his name.

While expressing his views after the toss, Sri Lanka team captain Dasun Shanaka said that there might be some turn in the afternoon, but it looked like a good batting track nevertheless.

Indian cricket team captain Rohit Sharma said that he would have batted first as well, but he hoped to put pressure on the Lankan batters early on.

The match was resumed after a brief halt as the ground was covered due to the dark clouds hovering over the match venue.

Sri Lanka XI: 1 Kusal Perera, 2 Pathum Nissanka, 3 Kusal Mendis (wk), 4 Sadeera Samarawickrama, 5 Charith Asalanka, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva, 7 Dasun Shanaka (capt), 8 Dunith Wellalage, 9 Dushan Hemantha, 10 Matheesha Pathirana, 11 Pramod Madushan

Sri Lanka has one change, as Hemantha comes in for Theekshana.

India XI: 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 KL Rahul (wk), 5 Ishan Kishan, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Jasprit Bumrah