Curated by - City Chief Desk | CITYCHIEFNEWS

Dubai, Bhanuka Rajapaksa's excellent batting, and Pramod Madhushan's excellent bowling made Sri Lanka the new champion of Asia. In the final of the T20 tournament (Asia Cup 2022), Sri Lanka defeated Pakistan by 23 runs. The team won the tournament title for the sixth time. Playing first, Sri Lanka scored 170 runs for 6 wickets with the help of Bhanuka Rajapaksa's unbeaten 71. In reply, Pakistan's team could only score 147 runs for 10 wickets in 20 overs. Pakistan had a good chance of winning the title after 2012. But the team failed to do so.

Chasing the target, the start of Pakistan was not good. Captain Babar Azam could only score 5 runs. At the same time, Fakhar Zaman was out on zero. Pramod Madhushan got the wicket of both. After this, Rizwan and Iftikhar Ahmed took over the team with a half-century partnership. Iftikhar became Madhushan's third victim after scoring 32 off 31 balls. Then Nawaz became the victim of Chamika Karunaratne after scoring 6 runs in 9 balls.

Rizwan out with a half-century

Pakistan had to score 70 runs in the last 5 overs and 7 wickets were in hand. In the 16th over, fast bowler Chamika Karunaratne gave only 9 runs and also took the wicket of Nawaz. The 17th over was bowled by leg spinner Vanind Hasaranga and took 3 wickets. He dismissed Rizwan on the first ball. He scored 55 runs off 49 balls. Hits 4 fours and a six. On the third ball, Asif Ali got bowled for zero. Khushdil Shah returned to the pavilion after scoring 2 runs on the 5th ball. Only 2 runs were scored in the over. Hasaranga took 3 wickets for 27 runs in 4 overs.

59 needed off 18 balls

Pakistan had to score 59 runs off 18 balls and had 3 wickets in hand. In the 18th over, Teekshna gave only 8 runs and took the wicket of Shadab Khan. He could only score 8 runs. Madhushan bowled the 19th over. He dismissed Naseem Shah. Shah scored 4 runs. 19 runs were scored in the over. Madhashun took 4 wickets for 34 runs. Now 32 runs were to be scored off 6 balls. Karunaratne bowled the last over. Rauf was dismissed for 13 runs off the last ball. Hasnain remained unbeaten on 8 runs.