Istafa Ali
For the third day in a row India were on field playing international cricket. It isn’t easy for the teams to play high intense 50 over matches in high humidity. Rain has disrupted play throughout the Asia Cup. Full credit to the ground staff who prepared a good pitch and a dry outfield for the important clash between India and Sri Lanka in the Super 4 round of 2023 Asia Cup.
India batted first. Rohit Sharma took on Sri Lankan pacers early on. India had a good start, they scored 80 runs in first 11 overs. But the twenty-year-old Dunith Wellalage took three quick wickets of Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. After that K. L. Rahul showed how good batsman he is, Rahul scored a well-paced 39 of 44 balls. India were bowled out in 49.1 overs on a total of 213 runs. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma was the top run getter with 53 runs of 48 balls. For Sri Lanka Wellalage ended up with impressive figures of 5 wickets and giving away only 40 runs in his 10 overs. Young Charith Asalanka took 4 wickets for only 18 runs in nine overs.
Normally, the pitch is expected to get better for batters under lights. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj ran through Sri Lankan top order. All of a sudden Sri Lanka found themselves 5 down only for 73 runs. The damage was done even before the spinners came on to bowl. For the seventh wicket Dhananjaya De Silva Wellalage put on 63 runs. Dhananjaya batted beautifully for his knock of 41 runs. Wellalage remained not out on 42 runs. Sri Lanka were bowled out for a total of 172 runs. India won the match by 41 runs and qualified for 2023 Asia Cup final.
Even Sri Lanka lost the match, Dunith Wellalage was man of the match for his brilliant performance with bat and the ball.
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Sri Lanka and Pakistan will face each other in a very important match on Thursday. This match will be like a semi-final. Winner of this contest will qualify to the final where they will face India. The neutral cricket lovers are anticipating a Pakistan-India final. If the match ends up in a tie because of rain, Sri Lanka is likely to qualify to the final on basis of a better run rate.
