India and Sri Lanka clashed in the final of the Asia Cup 2023 on September 17, at the RPS in Colombo. The host captain Dasun Shanaka won the toss and chose to bat first.
Both sides made one change each as Sri Lanka brought in Dushan Hemantha for Maheesh Theekshana and India replaced the injured Akshar Patel with Washington Sundar.
The match started after some delay due to rain and straight after the Indian bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj swung the ball in the air easily, troubling the Sri Lankan batters. Bumrah opened the account by removing Kusal Perera in the first over for a duck.
After a couple of overs of silence, Mohammed Siraj began the rampage in the 4th over of the innings, as he started by removing Pathum Nissanka for 2 runs, who was caught at point by Ravindra Jadeja brilliantly.
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Then on the 3rd ball of the over, Sadeera Samarawickrama was trapped in front of the wickets for a duck by Siraj, and on the next ball, Charith Asalanka handed an easy catch to Ishan Kishan on the offside.
On the last ball of an eventful over, Mohammed Siraj had Dhananjaya de Silva caught by KL Rahul to make it four wickets in and over as Sri Lanka slipped to 12/5 in 4 overs.
However, the cherry on the top came when Mohammed Siraj in his next over, castled Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka with a brilliant out-swinging delivery to complete his five-wicket haul and left Sri Lanka teetering at 12/6.
The cricket fraternity was all praises for the Hyderabad-born pacer as he picked his maiden ODI fifer in such a manner.
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