 "Mohammed Siraj blows away Sri Lanka batters in Asia Cup final with record-making spell")
India’s Mohammed Siraj broke the back of Sri Lanka’s batting in the Asia Cup 2023 final on Sunday with a stunning over in which he took four wickets as the hosts lost half of their side for just 12 runs on the board. Jasprit Bumrah was the first one to provide India a breakthrough after Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat first in the final at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. IND vs SL: ASIA CUP FINAL LIVE Bumrh removed opener Kusal Perera on the third delivery of the first over. The batter got caught behind. After this Kusal Mendis and Pathum Nissanka played out the next overs carefully before Siraj ran through Sri Lanka’s batting.
The fateful over Ball 1: In the fourth over of the match, Siraj dismissed Nissanka on the very first ball as Ravindra Jadeja took a brilliant diving catch at the backward point. Ball 2: Sadeera Samarawickrama played out a dot ball. Ball 3: Siraj dismissed Samarawickrama, LBW. The ball nipped back in from a fuller length to trap the batter in front of the stumps. Ball 4: Charith Asalanka walked in and lost his wicket for a golden duck as his cover drive was caught by Ishan Kishan in the covers. Ball 5: No hat-trick! Dhananjaya de Silva got off the mark with a boundary off Siraj to the mid-on. Ball 6: Time is up for Dhananjaya de Silva as he threw his bat on an outswinger and got caught behind. The Hyderabad pacer is the first Indian bowler to take four wickets in an over in ODIs.
Siraj would then go on to complete his fifer in the sixth over when he cleaned up Dasun Shanaka. The pacer went full on middle and the late movement did the trick. Siraj completed his fifer within 16 balls.
The sixth wicket for Siraj came in the match came in the 12th over when he clean bowled Kusal Mendis with an inswinger. He eventually finished on 6/21 from seven overs including one maiden as Sri Lanka were bowled out on just 50 in 15.2 overs. Hardik Pandya took the remaining three wickets for India. Kusal Mendis (17) and Dushan Hemantha (13) were the only two Sri Lankan batters to reach double-figure scores. The bowler’s exceptional spell earned him a lot of praise on X ( formerly Twitter) as experts were stunned by the performance.