Colombo, Sep 15: In the thrilling match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan played in Asia Cup 2023, Sri Lanka made its place in the final by defeating Pakistan by 2 wickets (DLS) on the last ball.
There was some delay in the match due to rain before the start of the match at R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka, but the match was restarted as soon as the rain stopped. The match was reduced from 50 overs to only 45 overs.
As soon as the match started, Pakistan captain Babar Azam won the toss and invited Sri Lanka to bowl.
Their opening pair Shafique and Fakhar Zaman, who came to bat for Pakistan, did not have a special start and lost their first wicket for just 9 runs.
As soon as Fakhar Zaman was out, his captain Babar, who came to bat in the field along with Shafique, handled the innings well.
But Sri Lanka’s hero of the last match, Dunith Wellalage, dismissed Babar in his third over. Shortly thereafter, Shafique, who had completed his half-century, was also out on the ball of Pathirana.
Pakistan started looking in a bit of trouble as Mohammad Harris also got out after scoring just 3 runs. Sri Lanka’s bowlers started dominating but Rizwan from Pakistan’s side remained on the field and kept taking Pakistan’s score forward.
It rained again on the field due to which the game was stopped and the overs of the game were reduced to 42.
Pakistan’s score in 42 overs was 252 runs at the loss of 7 wickets.
For Pakistan, Rizwan 86(73) and Iftikhar Ahmed 47(40), and for Sri Lanka, Matheesha Pathirana took 3 wickets and Pramod Madushan took 2 wickets.
Now it was Sri Lanka’s turn to bat. Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Perera came to bat from their side, both were looking very good and Perera was scoring runs very fast but due to the tremendous fielding of Shadab Khan, Perera was run out in the third over, and Sri Lanka suffered a major blow.
Kusal Mendis and Nissanka managed the innings well and kept it going for a while but Shadab Khan dismissed Nissanka in 13 over.
After this Sri Lanka handled the innings very well
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Sadeera and Perera brought innings to a good turn.
But Pakistan did not give up and finally turned the game in its favor by taking continuous wickets.
Shaheen Afridi gave Sri Lanka more trouble by taking 2 consecutive wickets in 41 overs, now Sri Lanka needed 8 runs from 6 balls in the last over to win.
The trouble came when another batsman of Sri Lanka was run out and now to win, he had to score 6 runs in 2 balls, but Charith Asalanka did not lose his patience and scored 6 runs and registered victory for his team, and made the place into the final.
Now Sri Lanka’s final match will be against India on the 17th.
