India produced a fine bowling effort to beat Sri Lanka by 41 runs in a thriller game on Tuesday. With the second consecutive win in the Super 4 stage, Men in Blue have earned their spot in the finals of the Asia Cup, which will be played on September 17. Sri Lankan batters fumbled to score runs freely on a challenging pitch. Indian bowlers, on the other hand, used the conditions well and took regular wickets to bowl the opponents for 172. Kuldeep Yadav, the star for India two nights in a row, bagged four wickets and helped India to win an intense game.

Batting first, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill (19) gave India a decent start by adding 80 runs for the opening wicket. Sri Lanka orthodox bowler Dunith Wellalage then ran riot and dismissed three big fishes Gill, Virat Kohli (3), and Rohit (53) in his successive overs. However, India’s skipper Rohit batted well to hit his half-century and also became the second-fastest Indian batter to reach 10,000 runs in 241 innings.

Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul added 63 runs to rebuild the Indian innings. But Wellalage again came into action to send off Rahul (39). Moments later, Charith Asalanka dismissed Ishan for 33. Axar Patel’s crucial knock of 26 helped India to reach a defendable 213.

In reply, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj gave early blows to the Sri Lankan chase, dismissing the top three cheaply. The Lankans struggled to score runs as India kept taking wickets. Dhananjaya de Silva (41) and Wellalage (42*) gave their side hope by adding important runs, but that was not enough to cross the line as Kuldeep finished the proceedings soon.