Sri Lanka vs Pakistan: Dasun Shanaka Reveals How CSK Inspired Sri Lanka’s Asia Cup Final Win vs Pakistan
The Asia Cup 2022 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) saw a heavy trend in the favour of teams chasing, making the toss in the final a crucial one to win. The odds were already in favour of Pakistan when Babar Azam called it right and opted to field. Things got worse for Sri Lanka when they were down to 58/5 in the 9th over. But from then on, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Wanindu Hasaranga, Pramod Madushan and an inspired display of fielding saw them register a rather comfortable win over Pakistan to lift their sixth Asia Cup title.
Sri Lanka bowled Pakistan out for 147 to win the match by 23 runs.
Of the 11 matches played in the tournament before the final, the team batting first had won only thrice.
Two of those were when India and Pakistan beat Hong Kong and the other was when Virat Kohli’s century powered India to a big win over a tired Afghanistan side that was playing on back-to-back days.
Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka had acknowledged at the toss that his side was up against it having been put in to bat, but had said even then that they could still win.
After the match, he said that the team had in mind the final of IPL 2021, when Chennai Super Kings batted first and won.
“In IPL 2021, Chennai won the match batting first and that is what was in my mind, we talked about it,” Shanaka said in the post-match press conference. [CHECK AND REWRITE QUOTES PROPERLY PLEASE, COULD NOT FIND REPLAY YET]
IPL 2021 was also played in the UAE and the teams batting second did win more even in that edition of India’s premier T20 tournament.
But CSK had batted first and ended up beating Kolkata Knight Riders in the summit clash.
After the win, former India batter Gautam Gambhir was seen posing with the Sri Lankan flag and the entire supporters of Dasun Shanaka’s side erupted in joy.
Gambhir shared a video of the incident on his Twitter account and he wrote: “Superstar team…Truly deserving!!#CongratsSriLanka.”
Sri Lanka, a country picking up pieces after the death of democracy while facing enormous financial turbulence, found 11 worthy heroes on a cricket pitch as Dasun Shanaka’s unheralded bunch crushed Pakistan by 23 runs to win their sixth Asia Cup title here on Sunday.
It was a victory that was just not about cricket but way beyond that with much deeper historical and political importance.
It was one for posterity as Sri Lanka first raised themselves from the dungeons to reach 170 for 6 from a hopeless 58 for 5 because of Bhanuka Rajapaksa’s 45-ball-71, easily one of the best knocks under pressure in T20s in recent times.
If that wasn’t enough, Pakistan, who were cruising along at 93 for 2, were finally bowled out Pakistan for 147 as pacer Pramod Madushan (4/34 in 4 overs) and leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga (3/27 in 4 overs) ensured that the few thousands of Sri Lankan fans out cheered the 20,000 odd Pakistan fans.
With Thanks Reference to: https://sports.ndtv.com/asia-cup-2022/sri-lanka-vs-pakistan-dasun-shanaka-reveals-how-csk-inspired-sri-lankas-asia-cup-final-win-vs-pakistan-3336181 https://sports.ndtv.com/asia-cup-2022/sri-lanka-vs-pakistan-gautam-gambhir-poses-with-sri-lankas-flag-after-dasun-shanakas-side-wins-asia-cup-watch-3336205
