Mohammed Siraj the right arm fast bowler recorded his career best bowling figures of 6 for 21 as India recorded an easy 10 wicket win over Sri Lanka to take Asia Cup in the final played at R.Premadasa International cricket stadium yesterday.

It was a very poor batting performance by Sri Lanka who won the toss and elected to bat first and their innings lasted only 90 minutes and were bowled out for 50 in just 15.2 overs.The Indian openers Ishan Krishan 23 in 18 balls with 3 fours and Shubman Gill 27 in 19 balls with 6 fours reached their target in only 6.1 overs and the final finished at 6.10 pm and more than 25 ,000 crowd were very disappointed with Sri Lankan performance as India clinched their eighth Asia Cup.

Earlier Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka won the toss and elected to bat first as rain interrupted the game which started at 3.40 pm.

Sri Lankan top order were struggling against Indian pace duo Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj who bowled a fiery spell

Mohammed Siraj’s six-wicket haul left Sri Lanka in a mess. Pix by Shan Rupassara

.Kusal Janith Perera was out for a duck facing two balls as Jasprit Bumrah made first breakthrough in third ball of the first over .Mohammed Siraj who bowled from Maligawatte end was leading the way and turning point of the game was the fourth over of the innings Siraj took 4 wickets as Pathum Nissanka ( 2) ,Sadeera Samarawickrama ( 0) ,Charith Asalanka ( 0) and Dhananjaya de Silva ( 4) were back in the pavilion with irresponsible strokes and Indian bowlers put more pressure onr Sri Lanka.

At one stage Sri Lanka were 12 for 6 wickets after 5.4 overs and Sri Lanka was in deep trouble.Skipper Dasun Shanaka the man who is out of form once again was out for a duck after facing only four balls clean bowled by Siraj which was his fifth wicket of the game .

When Dasun Shanaka came to the middle skipper Rohit Sharma made a very unusual field at this one day game having four slips and skipper Dasun Shanaka was bowled by Siraj .The young Dunith Wellalage and Kusal Mendis added fighting 17 runs for the seventh wicket but Kusal Mendis the previous match hero was out for 17 in 34 balls with 3 fours and this was Siraj’s sixth wicket. while Sri Lanka reached 50 in 15.1 overs but Hardik Pandya did damage at later stage to pick last three wickets and Sri Lanka were bowled out for 50 in15.2 overs.

Dushan Hemantha who replaced injured Maheesh Theekshana was unbeaten on 13 and Hemantha and Mendis were the only two batters to reach double figures while Kusal Janith Perera,Sadeera Samarawickrama,Charith Asalanka,Dasun Shanaka and Mateesha Pathirana the five batters were out for ducks as three pacemen Siraj ,Bumrah and Pandya shared all ten wickets to bundle out Sri Lanka team.

However after Sri Lanka struggled to 50 all out Indian batters Ishan Krishan who was promoted as opener for Rohit Sharma with last match centurion Shubman Gill added 51 runs while Sri Lanka started the bowling with Promod Madushan who gave away 21 runs in 2 overs and Matheesha Pathirana also gave away 21 runs in 2 overs and Dunith Wellalage bowled only 2 overs and winning run was hit by Shubman Gill off the bowling of Charith Asalanka.

Sri Lanka team head coach Chris Silverwood said it was a below par batting performance and the way we got dismissed was very disappointing. Mohammed Siraj was outstanding while at the same time we made our own life difficult as well. We came here with some young bowlers who have great potential. However this final was very disappointing. I think a lot of questions are being asked but we have to rectify our mistakes.

Mohammed Shiraj was adjudged man of the match while Kuldeep Yadav was named man of the series .

Special Cash award for ground staff

Meanwhile Sri Lanka ground staff have been handed a cheque of US dollers 50, 000 for their outstanding work throughoutt this tournament and National curator Godfrey Dabrare picked up the cash award at the presentation ceremony.