Recent Match Report – Sri Lanka vs India Final 2023

India 51 for 0 (Gill 27*, Kishan 23*) beat Sri Lanka 50 (Siraj 6-21, Pandya 3-3) by 10 wickets

In overcast conditions, Siraj got the new ball to move around and picked up 6 for 21, the fourth-best ODI figures for India. He took just 16 balls for his first five wickets – the joint-fastest five-for in ODIs (where ESPNcricinfo has the data recorded) alongside Sri Lanka’s Chaminda Vaas and USA’s Ali Khan.

As a result, Sri Lanka were all out for 50 – their second-lowest ODI total – with only two batters reaching double digits. The whole innings lasted just 15.2 overs, the fifth-shortest in ODIs overall.

In response, Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan, opening the innings in place of Rohit Sharma, took just 6.1 overs to complete the formalities. The two India openers hit nine fours between them; all Sri Lanka batters combined hit five.

After losing the toss, Rohit Sharma said that he too had wanted to bat first on what he called “a dry wicket”. But ten minutes before the scheduled start, it started raining. Perhaps that changed the whole situation.

When the match finally started after a delay of 40 minutes, Jasprit Bumrah got the ball to move in both directions. With his third delivery, he had Kusal Perera caught behind. Sri Lanka were in for an even ruder shock from the other end.

Siraj started with a maiden, beating Kusal Mendis’ outside edge four times in the over. In his next, he had four wickets. Pathum Nissanka was the first to depart, pushing a length delivery uppishly towards backward point, where Ravindra Jadeja dived low to his right to pouch it with both hands.

Two balls later, Siraj trapped Sadeera Samarawickrama lbw and then immediately after that had Charith Asalanka chipping one to cover. Dhananjaya de Silva survived the hat-trick ball. In fact, he pushed it through the vacant mid-on region for four. Such was Siraj’s adrenaline that he chased it all the way to the long-on boundary, leaving the Indian fielders splitting their sides with laughter.