Cricket News Asia Cup 2023

'Sri Lanka are kings of Asia, what a fabulous performance' - Twitter goes bonkers as Sri Lanka annihilate Pakistan in the final of Asia Cup 2022

The Sri Lankan boys rallied around together and put n their best performance in the Asia Cup final to be crowned the Asian Kings,

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Akshay
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Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka: (Image Source: Twitter)

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka: (Image Source: Twitter)

The final of the Asia Cup took place between Sri Lanka and Pakistan on Sunday at the Dubai international stadium. Pakistan won the toss and chose to bowl first. Pakistan got off to the best possible start as Naseem Shah had Kusal Mendis bowled in the first over itself. Pathum Nissanka too was dismissed early by Haris Rauf to leave Sri Lanka at 23 for 2 in 3.2 overs.

Dananjaya De Silva came on and tried to shake things up by hitting four boundaries in his quick innings of 28 from 21 balls before offering a return catch to the part-timer Ifthikar Ahmed in the 8th over. Gunathilaka was bowled by a swinging delivery from Haris Rauf, while Shanaka was then bowled by Shadab Khan while trying to hit him out of the park.

At 58-5, Sri Lanka looked in total disarray. Bhanuka Rajapaksa then joined hands with Wanindu Hasaranga and they played some outstanding cricket and kept the scoreboard moving.

Hasaranga used his fast hands to good effect and played some beautiful cut shots during his innings of 36 from 21 balls, which had 5 boundaries and 1 maximum. Bhanuka Rajapaksa, on the other hand, played a match-winning knock of 71 runs in 45 balls. His heroics with the bat got Sri Lanka to 170-6, which looked improbable at one stage.

Pramod Madhushan in the third over of the second innings got the wicket of Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman off consecutive balls to put Sri Lanka on the driver's seat at 22-2. Madhushan came back and picked up the dangerous Iftikhar and Chamika Karunaratne dismissed Mohammad Nawaz, who tried to go for the big hit. While Rizwan made the scoreboard ticking, Pakistan kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

Till the 15 overs, the match was evenly poised. However, Hasaranga came in the 16th over and picked three wickets in six deliveries to turn the game completely in the favour of Sri Lanka.

Pakistan tail scored a few boundaries at the end but it was too much work to be done for them. Sri Lanka finally tasted victory on the last ball of the over as they got Pakistan all out for 147. They won the final by 23 runs and clinched their 6th Asia Cup victory staging a dramatic comeback in the tournament.

Twitter was abuzz, let us take a look at the reactions here -

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