‘Jaldi wahan se hato’ – Fans react as Sri Lanka register thrilling 2-wicket win over Pakistan, qualify for Asia Cup 2023 final against India

Pakistan and Sri Lanka clashed against each other in the 5th match of the Super Fours clash in the ongoing Asia Cup 2023. Both teams were playing a do-or-die match at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Thursday, September 14. Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan in a thrilling contest by 2 wickets and will now face India in the final on September 17.

Talking about the match, Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first. The match was delayed due to rain and the overs were reduced from 50 to 45. Pakistan’s decision of batting first didn’t work initially as they lost their opener Fakhar Zaman in the 5th over of the match. However, later, skipper Babar Azam and opener Abdullah Shafique steadied the innings.

But Sri Lanka’s star player in this tournament, Dunith Wellalage provided the much-needed breakthrough and dismissed Babar Azam in the 16th over of the innings. Shafique smashed a half-century in his first match of the tournament but Matheesha Pathiran hit back by dismissing Shafique and Mohammad Haris. 

The contest was then interrupted by the rain after which the game was reduced to 42 overs. The reduction forced Pakistan batters to accelerate and Mohammad Rizwan and Iftikhar Ahmed took the responsibility and stitched a 108-run stand for the 6th wicket and helped the team to achieve a respectful total of 252 runs. Rizwan played an unbeaten knock of 86 runs off 73 balls while Ahmed scored 47 runs.

Brilliant batting performance by Sri Lanka

Chasing the target, the Sri Lankan team started aggressively and utilised the crucial 10 overs of the 1st powerplay. Kusal Perera played his first ODI match after a gap of 2 years but it didn’t look like he was playing after a long gap as he hit Shaheen Afridi for multiple fours before he got run out in the 4th over of the 2nd innings.

Kusal Mendis then joined Pathum Nissanka and both took forward the innings and also kept scoring at a good run rate. Nissanka got caught and bowled by Shadab Khan in the 14th over. However, it didn’t affect the team much as Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama stitched a 100-run stand for the 3rd wicket.

Iftikhar provided a crucial breakthrough by dismissing Samarawickrama in the 30th over. He also sent back Mendis on the score of 91 runs. However, it was too late for the Men in Green as they lost the match in the final ball by 2 wickets. With this win they are eliminated from the tournament.

Here’s how fans reacted:

https://twitter.com/Jitu_kakroda/status/1702405962181878064