Jul 06 2008
Sri Lanka won Asia Cup Trophy: Mendis being the hero!
India lost the crucial Asia cup against Sri Lanka by 100 runs today in Karachi in National Stadium. Sri Lanka which set an easy looking target of 274, won the Asia cup Tropthy for the fourth time. The final match was all set for a Sunday delight to get a view of powerful Indian batting and Sri Lankan fielding but disappointedly the Indian batsmen really had no answer to Ajantha Mendis, who is selected as Man of the match and Man of the series as well.
Earlier India lost the Kitply Cup against Pakistan and lost the finals at Dhaka by 25 runs. India’s skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bowl first.
India was at good field at the start. Danger man Kumar Sangakkara was back to pavilion in just the second over of the match by Suresh Raina. He has made only 4 runs. Ishant Sharma removed Mahela Jayawardene for just 2 runs and send Chamara Kapugedera on a long walk back to the pavilion for a score of 5. With Kapugedera’s departure, the scoreboard read 66 for the loss of three in 11.4 over.
The lanky fast bowler Ishant Sharma seemed to be on fire as he took the wickets of skipper Mahela Jayawardene, Chamara Kapugedera and Chamara Silva in quick succession. Jayasuriya hit three sixes and two fours in the same over bowled by RP Singh. He scored 125 runs off 114 balls at total racing his 27th century in One-Day Internationals.
Virender Sehwag finally broke the 131 run partnership between Sanath Jayasuriya and Tilakratane Dilshan by forcing Jayasuriya to hole a catch into the hands of Ishant Sharma in the deep. Dilshan scored 56 important runs before sent back to pavilion by Dhoni.
Pathan bowled the last over of the innings and scalped Muttiah Muralitharan off the fifth ball of the last ball to finish the Lankan innings before 50 overs.
At that point India needed 274 runs in 50 over to lift the Asia Cup. India lost their first wicket at the score of 36 in the 5th over.
Virender Sehwag departed after he struck a speedy half century to give India a good and quick start. Only Sehwag crossed his half century making a score of 60 runs out of 36 balls including 12 fours.
Yuvraj Singh came to the crease after Sehwag’s departure and followed him to the hut two balls later. Ajantha Mendis sent six players to the pavilion. Suresh Raina was another victim of him who made only 16 runs.
Although the final pair of Ishant Sharma and Pragyan Ojha offered some resistance to the Lankans, it was not sufficient to take the Indians home. Kulasekara took the last wicket in the form of Ishant Sharma by castling him to bring an end to the Asia Cup championship.
Dhoni made a score of 49 out off 74 balss. Other players could not show their best on the ground. India can only reach 173 runs in 39.3 overs before getting all out.
Mendis was awarded the man-of-the-match for his six wicket haul for 13 runs in six overs. He was also the man-of -the-series for taking 17 wickets in the tournament.
