Indian batting order collapsed ahead of the Sri Lankan bowling attack, especially spinner Dunith Wellalage, during the second Super 4 match at Asia Cup 2023 at the iconic R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Tuesday.
In the match, Dunith Wellalage — the 20-year-old left-arm spinner — picked up the wickets of Shubman Gill (19), Rohit Sharma (53), Virat Kohli (3), Rahul (39), and Hardik Pandya (5) to return with career-best figures of 5/40 in ODIs.
Following this, another Sri Lanka spinner Charith Asalanka picked up 4 wickets – Ishan Kishan, Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, and Kuldeep Yadav. This led to India scoring only 213.
Despite this, Sri Lanka could not chase the small target and lost to India by 41 runs, all thanks to Indian pacers Jasprit Bumrah (2), and Mohammed Siraj (1), and a trio of Kuldeep Yadav (4), Ravindra Jadeja (2) and Hardik Pandya (1).
However, India’s wicket-keeper batter KL Rahul feels disappointed with his performance and throws an open challenge to Dunith Wellalage. Rahul said the Indian batters would like to “go after” Wellalage and not let him settle into a rhythm.
“He was spot on He got five wickets He did the job for his team. He looked the most dangerous bowler in Sri Lanka’s attack till I was playing. What more can I say? He got five top-order batsmen out. It was a good day for him, he did well with the bat too,” HT quoted Rahul as saying after the match.
As per Rahul, the left-arm spinner may face a different Indian team the next time. “The next time we play, we will go after him,” Rahul added.
Not only with the ball, Dunith Wellalage nearly took Sri Lanka home with the bat scoring an unbeaten 42 off 46 balls.
India to play 10th Asia Cup final on Sunday
With this win, India to play the 10th Asia Cup final on Sunday. Looking at the point table, India is at the top of it, but Sri Lanka still has a superior net run rate than Pakistan. This means only a win will do for Pakistan on Thursday, while a washout means Sri Lanka will make the final.