Pace bowler Mohammed Siraj claimed six wickets including four in one over, as India skittled out Sri Lanka for a paltry 50 in the Asia Cup final in Colombo on Sunday.
Sri Lanka were bowled out in 15.2 overs for a mere 50 runs after they elected to bat first in Colombo, but Siraj wreaked havoc with figures of 6-21.
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 DunithWellalage looked to stabilise, the fiery fast bowler struck again breaking the fledgling stand, taking his sixth wicket.
These are the best bowling figures in Asia Cup history for India.
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.
“It is like a dream. Last time against Sri Lanka I took four early wickets but couldn't get five. I realised you get whatever is in your fate. Today I was destined to get this. I didn't get much swing in the earlier matches but today that I got swing, I wanted to make the batters play. It is extremely satisfying that I got wickets with outswingers because generally I get wickets off the wobble-seam delivery”, said Siraj