Sri Lanka defeated India by 6 wickets in Dubai.
It was another frustrating night for Rohit Sharma and Team India as the defending champions were left on the brink of elimination from the Asia Cup 2022 after losing by 6 wickets to Sri Lanka on the penultimate ball of the match on Tuesday (September 6) in Dubai.
Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka won the toss and opted to bowl first as India posted 173/8 with Rohit playing a brilliant knock of 72 in 41 balls. Suryakumar made 34 but rest of the batting failed to shine as Dilshan Madushanka (3/24), Dasun Shanaka (2/26) and Chamika Karunaratne (2/27) bowled superbly to restrict the Indian batters.
Sri Lanka got off to a fantastic start as Pathum Nissanka (52) and Kusal Mendis (57) added 97 for the opening wicket. It looked like Sri Lanka would coast towards the target from there but then lost 4/13 with Yuzvendra Chahal striking thrice in no time. Thereafter Bhanuka Rajapaksa (25*) and Shanaka (33*) batted responsibly and finished the game with a ball to spare.
India now stares at being eliminated from the Super-4 stage if Pakistan defeats Afghanistan on Wednesday. Coming into the tournament as the favourites it would be a blow to not even be in the final, having suffered back-to-back last-over defeats to Pakistan and Sri Lanka with the T20 World Cup just over five weeks away now.
Captain Rohit Sharma spoke honestly after the defeat in a chat with Star Sports during the post-match presentation. He said, "We just ended up on the wrong side, as simple as that. We could have capitalised on the first half of our innings. We fell 10-15 runs short. The second half wasn't good for us. The guys who were out in the middle can learn about what shots can be played. These things can happen. Losses like these will make us understand what works as a team,"
Rohit also elaborated on the performance of his bowlers and explained why he didn't use the option of bowling Deepak Hooda despite him being preferred in the team to the designated finisher Dinesh Karthik mainly for that reason.
“With the ball, it was a good effort to take it to the last over considering the start they had. The spinners bowled aggressively and got wickets in the middle overs, but Sri Lanka held their nerve. We thought with the bigger boundary we could use the spinners well. But the plan didn't work out. Their right-handers batted for very long. I thought of bringing in Hooda and using the longer boundaries. But I was happy with the three seamers,"
Rohit confirmed Avesh Khan did not recover well enough from his illness and hence he was happy to play just three seamers in order to try out this combination before the T20 World Cup.
"Unfortunately Avesh hasn't turned up well in the fitness tests. He didn't respond well because he was quite sick. Ideally the combination we would play is four seamers, but three seamers was something we wanted to try before the World Cup. We need to find answers as a team, like where we are with five bowlers. We now know where we stand with this combination," said Rohit Sharma.
"No long term worries, we have lost only two games back to back. Since the last World Cup, we haven't lost too many games. These games will teach us. We wanted to put ourselves under pressure in the Asia Cup," Rohit stated.
He signed off with a word of praise for Arshdeep Singh, who for the second game running was outstanding in the final over despite having few runs to play with. He also backed Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendra Chahal despite a disappointing tournament for the senior pros.
"We are still looking for answers. These were two back to back games of close finishes. Have to give a lot to Arshdeep for bowling at the death and for the way he bowled. Chahal and Bhuvi are the senior pros and have been doing it for a while. I need to get answers from the younger ones."
(Cricbuzz inputs)