Leading the India fast bowling effort, Mohammed Siraj ran through the Sri Lanka top-order in a dazzling performance in the Asia Cup 2023 final.
Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka called it right at the toss, and chose to bat first. However, little went Sri Lanka’s way after the two sides walked out on the park.
India’s bowlers took advantage of the overcast conditions and got the ball to zip around both ways. Jasprit Bumrah drew first blood, getting rid of Kusal Perera for a duck.
However, it was his new-ball spell partner, Siraj, who turned the game on its head.
He picked four wickets in the fourth over of the game. He had Pathum Nissanka caught at point off the very first ball of the over. He followed it up with wickets of Sadeera Samarawickrama and Charith Asalanka off the third and fourth balls of the over respectively. Samarawickrama was trapped lbw, while Asalanka was caught in the covers.
Off the final delivery, he had Dhananjaya de Silva caught behind. He followed up this magical over with another wicket. He cleaned up Shanaka in his very next over.
With this, he completed a five-for off merely 16 balls. This equals the world record for the quickest five-for (ever since ball-by-ball data became available). He shares this with Sri Lanka’s Chaminda Vaas, who had picked five wickets against Bangladesh off merely 16 balls in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2003.
Sri Lanka were 12/6 after Siraj’s effort and just when Kusal Mendis and Dunith Wellalage looked to stabilise, the fiery fast bowler struck again breaking the fledgling stand, taking his sixth wicket.
There was no coming back for Sri Lanka after that fiery spell and Hardik Pandya completed the formalities by bagging the final three wickets and finishing with figures of 3/3.
Sri Lanka were bowled out for just 50, their second-lowest total in ODI history.
Lineups
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (wk), Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj
Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis (wk), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dasun Shanaka (c), Dunith Wellalage, Dushan Hemantha, Pramod Madushan, Matheesha Pathirana
