Friday 27 / December / 2024
COLOMBO: Indian pacer Mohammed Siraj's fiery spell saw him rip through the Sri Lankan batting order with a six-wicket haul as the hosts were bundled out for a paltry 50 in the Asia Cup 2023 final at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday.
Dasun Shanaka’s side which opted to bat first after winning the toss folded in just 15.2 overs.
Siraj was on fire as he picked four wickets in an over and finished with dream figures of 7-1-21-6.
The pacer took just 16 balls to get to five wickets, the joint-quickest with Chaminda Vaas and USA's Ali Khan, since 2002, which is when definitive ball-by-ball records have been kept.
Hardik Pandya picked three for three runs in three overs, with the last two batters bowled off successive deliveries while Jasprit Bumrah claimed the other wicket to fall. Kusal Mendis top-scored with 17.
It is Sri Lanka’s lowest total in ODIs against India. Also Sri Lanka's second-lowest.
Sri Lanka was bundled out for its second-lowest ODI total ever by India during the on Sunday.
The total was the lowest ever in men’s Asia Cup ODIs, surpassing the previous record held by Bangladesh (87 all out v Pakistan in 2000).
"Like a dream," Siraj called it, and put it down to "keeping it simple" and "executing my line and length". And the batters kept falling.
"Last time, against Sri Lanka, in Trivandrum [Thiruvananthapuram], I had taken the first four wickets [three of the first four], but couldn't get the fifth," Siraj told Sanjay Manjrekar on the official broadcast between innings, ESPNcricinfo reported.
"Then I realised that you only get what is in your destiny, not more, however hard you try. So the plan was to keep it simple and execute my line and length, and I kept getting wickets."
Pathum Nissanka fell first ball of that fourth over, driving an outswinger to Ravindra Jadeja at point.
Two balls later, Sadeera Samarawickrama went, trapped in front to one that moved in after pitching outside off stump. Next ball, Charith Asalanka chipped a full ball around off stump to Ishan Kishan at cover. And though he denied Siraj the hat-trick, Dhananjaya de Silva was caught behind nicking the channel delivery off the last ball of the over.
Dasun Shanaka and Kusal Mendis were then both bowled by Siraj in his third and sixth overs respectively.
What did it for Siraj, looking at it from the outside, was the swing. Primarily away from the right-hand batters. And pace, of course. In overcast conditions.
"My only thing when I play white-ball cricket is that I would try to swing the new ball at the start. But here, there wasn't a lot of swing on offer in the initial matches. Today it swung, so I tried to make the batsman play as much as possible," he said. "It's nice when it catches the edge. I have not picked up a lot of wickets with my outswing - today I got a lot of wickets with my outswing, so that felt very good."
