India’s young pacer Arshdeep Singh impressed one and all while defending just seven runs in the final over of the Asia Cup 2022 Super-4 clash against Sri Lanka at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday (September 6).
The left-arm fast bowler took the match to the penultimate delivery, but Sri Lanka eventually managed to overhaul India’s target of 174 with six wickets in hand.
Notably, Arshdeep was subjected to hateful comments on social media after he dropped a simple catch in the Super-4 game against Pakistan, which India ended up losing by five wickets.
After the loss against Sri Lanka, skipper Rohit Sharma opened up on Arshdeep's mindset and how the 23-year-old is confident of doing well in pressure situations.
The Indian captain further said that his team doesn’t pay much heed to social media trolls.
"Honestly, guys here don't look too much into social media, these days it is too much crap happening there," Rohit Sharma said in the press conference.
"Few losses here and there, a few games here and there, and one dropped catch, I do not think we look too much into it. Yes, he was himself disappointed with the catch that could have been taken but again, we saw the confidence when he came and bowled that last over, he nailed that yorker very well and got Asif Ali out. So that shows, if he was down and out, if you are not mentally there, execution doesn't happen," he added.
"So, in his case, he came out and he was pretty confident to execute. In fact, he just ran to his place and took the ball because he wanted that over to be bowled by him and even today, I thought he bowled pretty well the last two overs. He is a very confident lad which is why he's here. He has been with the team ahead of a lot of guys who are sitting back home," he continued.
Commenting further on Arshdeep, Rohit said: "The reason being, it's pretty simple, he is very clear in his mind. He is a confident lad, I have not seen many guys like that in their early days, he is very confident, he wants to do well and he is quite hungry for success. It is a good sign, even Rahul Bhai will tell you, we are very happy with how he takes his game and approaches it."
Coming to the match against Sri Lanka, India posted 173/8 in their 20 overs on the back of skipper Rohit Sharma’s 41-ball 72.
In reply, the Island Nation got off to a flying start as the duo of Pathum Nissanka (52 off 37) and Kusal Mendis (57 off 37) put on 97 runs for the opening wicket.
While Sri Lanka suffered a mini-collapse in the middle overs and slipped to 110/4, the start was so good that it didn’t affect them. In the death overs, captain Shanaka (33* off 18) and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (25* off 17) produced stunning cameos to take their team over the line with one delivery to spare.
(With NDTV inputs)
