India’s score of 173 for 8 (Rohit 72, Madushanka 3-24) wasn’t enough to beat Sri Lanka’s score of 174 for 4. Sri Lanka almost made it to the Asia Cup final when they beat India in a thrilling game with one ball left. India came close again, but they couldn’t beat the Dubai curse on teams that bat first. Hong Kong and Scotland are the only international teams to have lost when chasing at this ground since the start of 2020.
Only a loss by India to Afghanistan could now stop Sri Lanka from making it to the final. Pakistan had to lose both of their remaining games and lose by a lot for India to win. And, oh yeah, a final between India and Pakistan was ruled out.
Winning the toss could be a big advantage, but Sri Lanka showed a lot of brilliance even when they didn’t. Dilshan Madushanka was in charge of the ball. He took 3 for 24, and Chamika Karunaratne and Maheesh Theekshana helped him. Rohit Sharma overcame the tough conditions to score 72 runs off of 41 balls, while the rest of the team scored only 93 runs off of 79 balls. However, Sri Lanka pulled India back at the end, giving up only 38 runs in the last four overs.
In the chase, Kusal Mendis and Pathum Nissanka looked like they were going to win easily at the start, but Yuzvendra Chahal and R Ashwin took four wickets for 13 runs, bringing the total to 64 out of 35. But Bhanuka Rajapaksa and captain Dasun Shanaka brought them home in a very exciting way.
