The Sri Lankan team has shocked the fans by defeating Pakistan in the semi-finals of the Emerging Asia Cup. Batting first, Pakistan scored 135 runs, which Sri Lanka chased in just 16.3 overs. While the fans of Sri Lanka are happy with this victory in reaching the final, the fans of India and Pakistan are shocked. Actually, both the countries were hopeful that after the group stage, they would see a competition once again in the final. But Sri Lanka turned it down. Pakistan team is now out of this tournament. Let us tell you that the second semi-final is between India and Afghanistan. The winning team of this match will now face Sri Lanka in the final to be held on 27th October.
Emerging Asia Cup is being organized in Oman. The first semi-final match was played between Sri Lanka and Pakistan on 25 October. Pakistan captain Mohammad Haris won the toss and decided to bat first. But his team batted very poorly. Apart from opener Omair Yusuf, no one could stay on the batting crease for long. Omair played an inning of 67 runs in 46 balls at a strike rate of 147. Apart from them, Haider Ali scored 14 runs, Arafat Minhas scored 10 runs and Mohammad Imran scored 13 runs. None of the other batsmen could reach double figures. In this way the entire team could set the target of only 136 runs with the loss of 9 wickets.
Coming to bat first, Pakistan lost the first wicket at the score of 24 in the fourth over itself. After this, captain Haris was out in the sixth over on the score of 43. Then the series of serious falls continued. Pakistani batsmen kept getting out at frequent intervals and failed to score a big score. Sri Lanka easily chased the target of 136 runs. Lahiru Udana played a brilliant inning of 43 runs in 20 balls. Whereas Ahan Wickramasinghe scored 52 runs in 46 balls. Pakistani bowler Shahnawaz Dahani, who took 5 wickets in the last match, also could not do anything to the Sri Lankan batsmen. Pakistan used 6 bowlers, out of which only 2 could take wickets.
Sri Lankan leg spinner Dushan Hemanta was the hero of the semi-final match. He had defeated Pakistan with his lethal bowling. Hemanta took 4 wickets for just 21 runs in 4 overs. The result was that the Sri Lankan team was successful in restricting Pakistan to only 135 runs. Hemanta was also chosen Player of the Match for his excellent performance.
