Asia Cup: Pace battery leads charge

Colombo, September 12

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India’s bowlers produced a splendid collective effort to carry their team to a 41-run win over a spirited Sri Lanka in a Super 4 match and into the Asia Cup final.

Rohit Sharma’s fifty (53 off 48 balls) was the cornerstone of India’s sub-par 213 after Sri Lanka’s spinners Dunith Wellalage (5/40) and Charith Asalanka (4/18) bamboozled them. But India, guided by Kuldeep Yadav’s 4/43, bowled out the Lankans for 172.

India, who entered the final with four points, will either face Sri Lanka or Pakistan in the summit clash on Sunday. The hosts will face Pakistan on Thursday.

The insipid effort of their batsmen made it mandatory for the Indian bowlers to be on the money from the first ball, and Jasprit Bumrah led the way. Bumrah took the ball away from Pathum Nissanka and the edge was snaffled behind the wicket by a diving KL Rahul.

Kusal Mendis looked in fine touch but he failed to keep his drive off a slow, full delivery from Bumrah down. Substitute fielder Suryakumar Yadav took the catch at covers and umpires gave Mendis out after a quick check with the TV umpire for bump ball.

Mohammed Siraj soon got into the act, cramping Dimuth Karunaratne for room and his cut did not go beyond Shubman Gill at second slip. Sri Lanka were 25/3 at that stage. Kuldeep took a couple of quick wickets to further dent their chances, reducing them to 99/6.

However, Wellalage (42 not out) and Dhananjaya de Silva (41 off 66 balls) added 63 runs for an enterprising seventh-wicket alliance to revive Lankan hopes. But a moment of indiscretion ended the stand as De Silva tried to clear the infield off Ravindra Jadeja only to give a simple catch to Gill at mid-on.

Wellalage, who batted exceptionally well, tried to bridge the gap but the task was too hard to achieve with a one-man show.

Brief scores: India: 213 all out in 49.1 overs (Sharma 53, Rahul 39, Kishan 33; Wellalage 5/40, Asalanka 4/18); Sri Lanka: 172 all out in 41.3 overs (Wellalage 42*; Kuldeep 4/43, Bumrah 2/30, Jadeja 2/33, Pandya 1/14, Siraj 1/17). — PTI

Milestone man

Colombo: India captain Rohit Sharma today became the sixth batter from his country and 15th overall to complete 10,000 ODI runs. Sharma achieved the feat during India’s Asia Cup Super 4 contest against Sri Lanka here. The India skipper hit a six off Sri Lanka’s Kasun Rajitha to complete the milestone in the seventh over of the innings, a day after Virat Kohli became the quickest ever batter to cross 13,000-run landmark in a record 267 ODI innings. In fact, Sharma completed his 10,000 runs in 241 innings, which is second fastest ever after Kohli did so in 205 innings. PTI

Performance pressure on Rahul

Colombo: Returning to action after a long injury layoff, India wicketkeeper batter KL Rahul says he was a bundle of nerves and it took him some time to settle down before going for his shots against a quality Pakistan attack in the Asia Cup on Monday.

The 31-year-old, who had suffered a debilitating thigh injury during the IPL which later necessitated a surgery, smashed an unconquered 106-ball 111 to play a vital role in India’s 228-run win over Pakistan. “Obviously, this is my first international match after a long time. I played a couple of practice games, but we all know the intensity is not the same. So when I walked in, I had that initial nervousness,” said Rahul, who smashed his sixth ODI hundred.

“It took me 10-15 balls to just calm myself down and get my feet moving, get my mind thinking of the right things. Then, when I hit one or two boundaries, all those things, the fogginess in your clarity, went away, and it became like before.”

Rain interruptions made things further difficult as Rahul (111 not out) and Virat Kohli (122 not out) had to restart the India innings, which was suspended on Sunday because of rain, at 147/2 in 24.1 overs.

“I was looking at the ball, looking at the situation, and you see what you have to do. But just when I got my rhythm, it started raining…and I had to wait for a whole day,” Rahul said. “We came back and had to wait for the innings to start. So I had to restart the innings again.”