Asia Cup 2008

Sri Lanka wins Asia Cup

Sri Lanka retained the Asia Cup with a crushing win over sub-continental neighbours India, at Karachi’s National Stadium in Pakistan. This was a repeat of the 2004 tournament final and the end result was the same, with the Islanders running away with the game.

Scorecard

It all started to go wrong for India after Dhoni won the toss and chose to bowl first. He should have opted to bat first, as his batsmen are in form and setting a target would have been better against the Sri Lankan batting. As chasing against the guile of the Lankan bowling was always going to be difficult.

And so it proved. But first the Sri Lankan batting, which didn’t fire as expected today but even then Sanath Jayasuriya came good as he rocked off another century, his umpteenth against the Indians and in a similar important scenario. He scored 125 off just 114 balls and they lost crucial early wickets to be tottering at 4 for 66 at one stage as Ishant got three wickets in quick succesion.

But he was partnered by Dilshan who fought on with a half century and with Kulasekara & Vaas put on 274 on the board. This was going to be no easy task even though targets in excess of 300 have been chased with considerable ease in the series so far.

And so it proved as the guile of the Lankan bowling completely overwhelmed the Indians. Especially Mendis whom the Indian batsmen hadn’t played before. in his opening spell he went on to take 4 wickets for 8 runs in four overs, breaking the back of the Indian batting. He ended with a match haul of 6 for 13 in eight overs as the Indians folded up at 173.

The Indian batsmen were guilty of throwing their wickets away especially Sehwag who was set at 60 and Raina as well as Yuvraj who failed to read the deliveries and went in for expansive drives.

Tags: ajantha mendis, Asia Cup 2008, India, jayasuriya, sehwag, sri lanka