 Finally India manages to break the jinx of Final to lift the Asia Cup title with the help of collective batting and bowling effort from the players. The under-fire seam attack came good when it mattered to bowl out the Sri Lankans for just 187 in 44.4 overs to give India a comprehensive 81 runs win in the Asia Cup Final. With this win a 1 5-year-old title drought came to an end. This is the fifth time India manage to win Asia Cup title, last time India have won in 1995 under the captaincy of Md. Azharuddin after beating Sri Lanka by eight wickets in Sharjah. After electing to bat first India posted a competitive 268/6 in their 50 overs, with fine half-century by late comer Dinesh Karthik (66 runs off 84 balls). He got good support from G.Gambhir (15 runs off 16 balls), V.Kohli (28 runs off 34 balls), M.S.Dhoni (38 runs off 50 balls) and R.Sharma (41 runs off 52 balls). At 146/3 in the 28th over India were cruising and looking well on course to reach close to 300 run mark but some needless shot by D.Karthik and M.S.Dhoni on part-timer T.Kandamby peg India back and in the end they manage just 268/6 in their 50 overs. Sri Lanka got off to disastrous start loosing in-form opener T.Dilshan for duck in the very first over bowled by P.Kumar. Indian seamers bolwed with impeccable line and length in the helping condition under light accounting for the scalps of Tillakaratne Dilshan (0), Upul Tharanga (16 runs off 30 balls), Mahela Jayawardene (11 runs off 19 balls), Angelo Mathews (0 runs off 2 balls) and Captain Kumar Sangakkara (17 runs off 38 balls) in just 16overs. At 51/5, the game was already over for the Lankan’s but a superb half-century partnership between T.Kandamby (31 runs off 45 balls) and C.Kapugedara (55 runs off 88 balls) put some halt on Indian much awaited victory. However a complete misunderstanding between Kandamby and Kapugedara resulted in a needless run-out to send Sri Lankan’s packing. D.Karthik was declared Player of the Match his match winning 66 runs off 84 balls. S.Afridi was declared Player of the Series. Match Summary (India Won by 81 Runs) India– 268/6 in 50 Overs D.Karthik – 66 R.Sharma- 41 L.Malinga- 10-0-57-2 T.Kandamby– 7-0-37-2 Sri Lanka – 187/10 in 44.4 Overs C.Kapugedara- 55* T.Kandamby– 31 A.Nehra– 9-0-40-4 R.Jadeja- 6.4-0-29-2 |
