The Sri Lanka Emerging Cricket Team has won the Emerging Teams Asia Cup Final by defeating India by 3 runs.

After dominating the whole tournament, India fell just three runs short of the glory as Sri Lanka held nerve in the final to win the Emerging Teams Asia Cup. The Islanders have defended the title successfully after winning it in 2017 when the tournament was held in Bangladesh. Atit Sheth was the man for the Indian youngsters who brought his team so close to the victory.

He came out to bat with his team needing 39 runs off 23 deliveries and played a blinder. The 47th over bowled by Asela Gunaratne turned the game on its head. Three wickets fell in the over and India were left reeling nine down. But Sheth had other ideas. He took the game deep by bringing the equation down to 22 runs off last two overs. But the penultimate was an exceptional one it came down to 20 off the last over.

Sheth though didn’t lose hope and took it upon himself to score all the runs with Kamindu Mendis taking the responsibility of defending the total. He started the over well with a dot ball as Sheth refused a single but things went really when he connected next two for massive sixes. It all then came down to six off the final ball. The tension was huge in both the camps even as the batsman connected his shot only to fall it short of the boundary.

The fielder was also stationed in the deep as India could only churn out a couple of runs. Nevertheless, chasing 271, they made a meal of the score by reaching 267 runs in 50 overs after being reduced to 127/6 at one stage.

Earlier, Shams Mulani and skipper Jayant Yadav batted superbly to give the team hope after being down and out of the game. Both of them added 107 runs for the seventh wicket to bring victory in sight. However, Gunaratne’s 47th over snatched victory from the Indian team.

In the morning, Sri Lanka opted to bat first and rode on the half-centuries from Hasitha Boyagoda and Kamindu Mendis. The Indian spinners were brilliant but they were guilty of not picking the wickets of lower-order. Wanidu Hasaranga played a crucial knock of 31 runs in the death overs and remained unbeaten to propel Sri Lanka to 270 which were just enough in the end.

-Agencies