Asia Cup 2022: India face Super 4 elimination after another final over defeat as Sri Lanka chase down 174.
India lost in the Super 4 stage of the 2022 Asia Cup for the second time in a row against a focused Sri Lanka on Tuesday, making it two victories in a row.
Cricket- India Almost out of Asia cup
With a six-wicket victory in their Asia Cup Super Four match in Dubai on Tuesday, a rejuvenated Sri Lanka firmly pushed the Indian cricket team towards the exit door. This is India’s second consecutive Super 4 defeat, putting the Rohit Sharma-led team in serious danger of missing out on a semi-final berth.
Captain Rohit Sharma’s valiant 72-run knock was in vain as the Dasun Shanaka-led side chased down the 174-run target to secure their second consecutive Super 4 stage victory. Sri Lanka exposed the Indian team’s flaws, most notably its poor mindset and poor shot selection, which Pakistan exploited to the hilt just two days earlier.
India must now wait for other results to go their way in order to qualify for the Asia Cup final. India will be hoping that either Sri Lanka or Pakistan win their remaining matches and beat Afghanistan on Thursday. Net Run Rate will be used to determine the tie-break once more. If Pakistan defeats Afghanistan, India will be eliminated from the tournament.
Sri Lanka, chasing 174, got off to a flying start, with openers Kusal Mendis (57 off 37 balls) and Pathum Nissanka (52 off 37 balls) putting on 91 runs at a rapid pace. Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, on the other hand, had other plans, striking twice in the 12th over to halt Sri Lanka’s march. Ravichandran Ashwin dismissed Danushka Gunathilaka (1) in the 14th over, leaving Sri Lanka at 110 for three.
Dasun Shanaka is the Player of the Match : ‘The confidence in the dressing room is great. The bowlers in patches, they bowled well . Credit to Dilshan, and Theekshana, they bowled really well. The batters came out against them, but we did well. We had good discussions after the first game, and we know what we can do. Pathum and Kusal set the tone brilliantly, and Rajapaksa and I set up the chase. [On him not bowling much] It’s due to the team combination, so I haven’t been bowling my quota. I need to take the best decision the team needs.’
Rohit Sharma, the Indian captain up first: We ended up on the wrong side, just as simple as that. The kind of runs we got, we could have capitalised a bit more. We were 10-15 runs short. The guys out in the middle need to learn what they need to do and what kind of shot-making can happen, This team was on a good run for a long time, such losses will help us better to learn as a team. It was a good effort with the ball, considering the start they got. The spinners came out and bowled quite aggressively. In the end, SL held their nerves quite well. [Three seamers?] We thought with the bigger boundary, you can use the spin well. Their right-handers batted for longer periods of time. I was thinking of bringing Hooda but it did not work out the way we thought. Avesh has not pulled up that well. He didn’t turn up well. He was quite sick. Ideally, when we start touring, we would like four seamers., But you also try with three. Come the WC I want to be ready with all answers. Since Hardik came back we always played with three seamers with Hardik being the fourth, but we have to look at all options. We pretty much know now what to deal with regarding our combination. [Long-term worries?] No worries. It is just the two games we have lost back to back. Since the last WC, we haven’t lost much. We wanted to put ourselves under pressure during this Asia Cup. We are still looking for some answers but when we play a game like this, you get a lot of answers. You have to give a lot of credit to Arshdeep for coming out the way he did at the end.
Kusal Mendis, who set the tone of the chase with a 37-ball 57: Very happy. Pathum and I had a good start and then Rajapaksa and Shanaka had an amazing, probably this tournament’s best partnership. The right-left hand combination worked for us. I worked hard in SL, and the coaches told me to play the normal game, take singles, hit the fours or six. That’s helped us get success. We tried to find the gap, and that’s the option we went for. We played our normal game. We have power hitters in the middle. My role is to play my normal game in the first six overs.
