A spectacular Asia Cup tournament comes to a conclusion.
Asia Cup Final 2022:
We received such a treat today. This game had a lot of varying ups and downs.
Momentum was a term mentioned by a few Sri Lankan players on the winning team, and after consideration, one cannot help but concur. Pakistan had a great chance to go for the kill and bowl Sri Lanka out for a low total when they were 67-5 during the first half of the innings.
Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan by 23 runs to win the Asia Cup for the sixth time. The Sri Lankan squad was led home by Bhanuka Rajapaksa (71* off 45), Pramod Madushan (4-34) and Wanindu Hasaranga’s all-around performance (36, 3-27).
There at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Pakistan captain Babar Azam chose to bowl first after winning the toss.
Sri Lanka, who had the good fortune to chase in all four of its previous games, will finally be chasing a total in the Asia Cup final.
Sri Lanka was initially 58-5 after being called to bat before Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Wanindu Hasaranga formed a strong partnership to push Sri Lanka past 100.
Rajapaksa kept going even after Hasaranga was dismissed and reached fifty. Drop catches helped him out, and Sri Lanka scored 170/6 in their 20 overs. Pakistan, who was attempting to reach the winning total, was dealt early blows and never recovered.
When Dilshan became nervous after surrendering nine unarguable runs without a valid delivery on the board, Pakistan challenged to change the course of that momentum.
However, the bowling attack came back and kept Pakistan so under the cosh, which would eventually slow down their innings as they left far too much, too close to the end for the rest of the batting lineup to do.
With just two victories from 11 games this year, Sri Lanka entered the Asia Cup. Since Lanka had a poor start, losing to Afghanistan after being bowled out for 105, few people believed they had a chance to go to the final.
They have, however, recovered magnificently to win their last four games, masterfully chasing in three of them and cruising past Pakistan in the final Super Four game on Friday.
