India meet Sri Lanka in dead rubber
India meet Sri Lanka in dead rubber
A drag-down gets Abhishek Sharma
Charith Asalanka is decidedly not one of Sri Lanka's best bowlers. He's also pitched too short bowling the fourth ball of his first over (the ning of the innings). The way Abhishek Sharma has been batting, he should have thumped that waaaaaay over deep midwicket. Instead he holds out to Kamindu Mendis on the rope.
Abhishek punches his bat before he walks off the field. He has clearly mis-hit that. Asalanka looks relieved - the form batter of the tournament has been wangled out.
Hasaranga gets SKY
While no one has quite been having the Asia Cup that Abhishek Sharma has had, Wanindu Hasaranga has been getting himself back into rhythm following a hamstring injury. He'd had six wickets in five Asia Cup matches before this, and in the seventh over, strikes gets one to dip on Suryakumar Yadav, who is attempting to sweep. In pitches on middle and straightens, and would have gone on to take off stump if SKY's body had not been in the way.
The umpire raises his finger.
SKY burns a review (it always looked pretty plumb).
Hasaranga gets his seventh wicket of the tournament.
Can Abhishek Sharma be stopped?
This is his third fifty in succession. In this Asia Cup, his lowest score is 30. He has clobbered seven fours and two sixes to get to a half-century off 22 balls.
This is only India's second-best powerplay of the tournament, however. They have 71 for 1 after six overs here. Against Bangladesh, they'd had 72 for no wickets.
Abhishek Sharma has another flying start
India's batter of the tournament so far is flying again. He's struck three fours, and a massive six over deep midwicket, off of the bowling of Theekshana. India are speeding at more than 11 an over.
Theekshana holds on!
Maheesh Theekshana is not known for his fielding. But in the second over of this game, he has pulled of a stunner, leaping to his left in his follow-through to hold on to a hard-struck drive from Shubman Gill in the tips of his right hand (the left had provided an assist). There are so many batting weapons in this India top order that it hardly seems a victory to get a wicket. But for Theekshana, who has not played every match in this tournament, a powerplay wicket right now is extremely valuable, as Sri Lanka weigh their bowling options for the World Cup next year.
Still no Matheesha Pathirana
As round-arm bowler Nuwan Thushara bowls the first over, conceding eight, some might wonder why Matheesha Pathirana is not part of this Sri Lanka XI.
Pathirana is part of the squad, but is not part of the Sri Lanka T20 starting XI at the moment, though he has been a star for Chennai Super Kings over the past three IPLs.
Essentially, where in the IPL the impact-player rule allows CSK to have a bowler who almost exclusively bowls at the death, Sri Lanka believe that Nuwan Thushara is currently the better all-phases bowler. But Thushara has been struggling at points in this Asia Cup too.
No Bumrah, no Dube for India
It's obvious why Jasprit Bumrah is not playing this game - there is no reason to risk him ahead of Saturday's final. Shivam Dube's omission is a little more fraught. While he has taken important wickets at times, Dube hasn't quite found the batting gears in this tournament yet. Dube had been part of India's T20 World Cup win last year, hitting 27 off 16 in the final. But on some tracks, India might need a bowling-first allrounder like Rana too. x
Sri Lanka still searching for a working combination
While India have rested key players, Sri Lanka have swapped out Chamika Karunaratne for Janith Liyanage.
Charith Asalanka was pretty open about SL still searching for the right combination. Essentially, they are looking for the correct composition of allrounder. Liyanage has been good with the bat in ODIs, and has contributed with the ball in that format. Can he do the same in T20Is.
Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis (wk), Kusal Perera, Charith Asalanka (capt), Dasun Shanaka, Kamindu Mendis, Janith Liyanage, Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Dushmantha Chameera, Nuwan Thushara
SL win toss, bowl first
Sri Lanka opt to bowl vs India
Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka has won the toss in their dead-rubber against India. They made one change with bowling allrounder Chamika Karunaratne making way for batting allrounder Janith Liyanage.
Asalanka, at the toss, said this was an important game despite a place in the final no longer up for grabs. He said he wanted to keep India down to 175.
Suryakumar Yadav, the India captain, said they were resting Jasprit Bumrah and Shivam Dube. Left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh and right-arm seamer Harshit Rana find a place in the India XI. He was happy with the toss decision from Sri Lanka since India wanted to bat.
Sri Lanka XI: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis (wk), Kusal Perera, Charith Asalanka (capt), Dasun Shanaka, Kamindu Mendis, Janith Liyanage, Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Dushmantha Chameera, Nuwan Thushara
India XI: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh
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