The Asia Cup 2023 had lots of twists and turns, and the rain too was always there to keep everyone on the edge of their seats and calculate the scenarios for their teams to qualify for the finals.
Finally, when the final match started, everyone expected it to be a cracker of a game, but Mohammed Siraj had other plans. He ripped through the top-order and the middle-order of Sri Lanka in the most incredible way. The spell reading 7-1-21-6 was certainly one of the best ever in the Asia Cup history. His spell included an over in which he took 4 wickets, thus becoming the first Indian ever to take 4 wickets in an over in ODIs.
Right from the first over, the Indian team looked in complete control;. Jasprit Bumrah provided the first breakthrough with the 4th ball of the first over getting Kusal Perera caught by the keeper, KL Rahul. Siraj followed suit with the first ball of the 4th over, taking the wicket of Pathum Nissanka, and he soon took 2 more wickets with the 3rd and 4th ball of the same over accounting for Sadeera Samarawickrama and Charith Asalanka. He missed his hat-trick of the next ball and then off the last ball of the 4th over, he took the wicket of Dhananjaya de Silva taking his edge to the keeper. In his very next over, Siraj completed his maiden 5-wicket hall by cleaning up Dasun Shanaka's stumps. At this time, Sri Lanka was 12 runs for the loss of 6 wickets. Medis and the new man Dunith Wellalage briefly defended the ball and avoided giving the wickets, but again Siraj took the wicket of Kusal Medis uprooting his stumps and putting India in the dominating position. Then the pace of Hardik Pandya got the better of the last 3 batters thus ending the Sri Lankan innings to 50 runs in 15.2 overs. This is Sri Lanka's 2nd lowest total in their ODI history.
India's chase started, and this time Rohit Sharma, did not come out to bat, instead sent the exciting Ishan Kishan along with the in-form Shubhman Gill to open the innings. The young openers chased the total in just 6.1 overs scoring 9 boundaries between them, and took India to their 8th Asia Cup title
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