Asia Cup Final: On Sunday, Sri Lanka won the final of the Asia Cup 2022 after beating Pakistan by 23 runs. With this win, Sri Lanka has won a total of six titles in the tournament’s history. They are now only one title behind India, which has won the Asia Cup trophy seven times. However, it wasn’t that easy for them after the horrific start they had. Notably, Afghanistan thrashed Sri Lanka for 8 wickets and they were on the verge of being eliminated.
Not many gave them a chance, but a totally young team with not many big names played like real champions. Even in the final, they were struggling at 58/5 in 8.5 overs. But after that, they showed why they deserved to win. Sri Lanka had two 50+ partnerships after that to reach a competitive total of 170/6. Bhanuka Rajapaksa played a match-turning knock of 71* off 45 balls, including six fours and three sixes. All-rounder Wanindu Hasaranga equally supported him and made 36 off 21 balls.
However, it didn’t start well for Sri Lanka either. The left-arm pacer, Dilshan Madushanka, gave away nine runs without bowling a legal delivery. That was the perfect start for Pakistan when they had nine runs without a ball to a 171-run chase. It ended as an 11-ball over. The over started with a no-ball first up by the pacer. He then bowled a wide ball for a free hit. Then, he followed it up with another wide ball, but this time the keeper couldn’t collect it and it went for a boundary, which resulted in five wides more. The fourth ball he tried, but it was again wide. Despite giving nine runs extra, the left arm only conceded three more runs in that over. He picked up the length very soon and in his next over, conceding a boundary only with five dots. In the end, it was too big a target for Pakistan to chase and they got all out for 147 runs, with Mohammad Rizwan top scoring with 55 runs off 49 balls. For Sri Lanka, Pramod Madushan picked up 4/34 and Hasaranga took 3/27.