India defeated Sri Lanka to go to the final, despite the well-lage effort

Kuldeep Yadav starred as India overcame a brilliant all-round effort from Sri Lanka’s Dunith Wellalage to win a tense Asia Cup clash by 41 runs on Tuesday and book a place in the final.

Kuldeep took four wickets including the final two as India defended 213, bowling out Sri Lanka for 172 to silence a large home crowd at Colombo’s R. Premadasa Stadium.

India recorded their second straight Super Four win in the 50-over tournament, a prelude to the upcoming ODI World Cup, and ended Sri Lanka’s 13-match winning streak in ODIs.

Wellalage, who claimed his maiden ODI five-wicket haul, remained unbeaten on 42 when he ran out of partners as left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep wrapped up the opposition tail in 41.3 overs.

“Kuldeep is a great bowler, I tried to play my normal game with a positive mindset,” said Wellalage, who was named man of the match despite being on the losing team.

“I want to thank my team-mates and my coaching staff — they gave me great support.”

India skipper Rohit Sharma praised Kuldeep, who also took five wickets in his team’s previous win over Pakistan, for his rhythm and consistency.
“For the past year or so, bowling really, really well. He has done a lot of hard work on his rhythm,” said Rohit.

He went back to the drawing board and worked on it. The ball is coming out nicely and you can see the results in the last 10 ODIs.”

It was India’s third straight day on the field after they crushed Pakistan by 228 runs on Monday in a match that was played across two days due to rain.

The next Super Four match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan on Thursday will decide the second finalists between the two teams.