SL succumbs to India despite Wellalage’s heroics

Sri Lanka’s Dunith Wellalage plays a shot during the Asia Cup 2023 Super Four one-day international (ODI) cricket match between India and Sri Lanka at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo 12 September  2023 – AFP

India’s Kuldeep Yadav (R) celebrates with teammates after taking the wicket of Sri Lanka’s Kasun Rajitha (not pictured) during the Asia Cup 2023 Super Four one-day international (ODI) cricket match between India and Sri Lanka at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on 12 September 2023 – AFP 

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka’s 13-match winning streak in ODIs was ended by India yesterday at the R. Premadasa Stadium where they won their Asia Cup Super4 match by 41 runs to qualify for a place in the final.

India showed their mental toughness and fitness playing for three consecutive days to beat Pakistan by 228 runs played over two days on Monday and then followed it up with a win against Sri Lanka yesterday to move to the tabletop with four points. This left the Super4 game between Sri Lanka and Pakistan on Thursday as a semi-final to decide the second finalist.

Although Sri Lanka lost, they found in 20-year-old Dunith Wellalage a future match-winner. After helping his team bowl India out for 213 with a maiden five-wicket haul, Wellalage heroically tried to win the match with the bat scoring an undefeated 42 off 46 balls (3 fours, 1 six) but ran out of partners as Sri Lanka chased a target of 214 were dismissed for 172. With two catches to boot, Wellalage was named the Player of the Match.

Sri Lanka lost six wickets for 99 by the start of the 26th over and it was from this point that Dhananjaya de Silva and Wellalage mounted a counterattack to take the score to 162 putting on a stand of 63 off 74 balls. For Sri Lanka to win this pair had to take the game deep because they were the last of the recognized batsmen. However, the fall of De Silva for 41 (66 balls, 5 fours) ended all hopes of Sri Lanka chasing down the total.

As Wellalage watched helplessly from the non-striker’s end Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha and Matheesha Pathirana all fell within the space of five balls as the Lankan innings folded up tamely. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj pushed Sri Lanka onto the back foot in their opening spells reducing them to 25-3 within the first power play, and then the spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja took over to run through the middle and late order taking six wickets between them.

Sri Lanka did well to keep India down to a total of 213 after this same side had battered the Pakistani bowling for 356-2 on Monday. India looked to be heading for a big score when Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill shared an opening stand of 80 off 67 balls. Sharma went on to make a top score of 53 off 48 balls (7 fours, 2 sixes) – his successive half-century of the tournament. In the process of doing so, he became the second fastest batsman (after Virat Kohli) to reach the milestone of 10,000 ODI runs. He reached that landmark in grand style by hitting Rajitha for a straight six over the bowler’s head.

Wellalage broke the opening stand by getting through the defences of Gill with his first delivery. From there onwards Wellalage continued to pick up wickets that saw India from a position of strength at 154-3 lose their last seven wickets for 59 runs. Wellalage was on song as he took the prize wickets of Gill, Kohli and Sharma in his first three overs. Part-time off-spinner Charith Asalanka joined the party to pick up a career-best 4/18 on a pitch that had an appreciable turn. Prior to this performance, Asalanka had taken only a solitary wicket. With Theekshana taking the final wicket it was the first time that India had lost all their wickets to spinners, and 14th straight game Sri Lanka had bowled out the opposition. It was an excellent performance put up by the Lankan bowlers who showed discipline with their lines and lengths and the fielders. Unfortunately, that feat was not matched by their batsmen.