India ended their 15-year wait for a fifth Asia Cup title with a comprehensive 81-run victory over Sri Lanka, the four-time champions, in Dambulla last night. And MS Dhoni, the captain of a jubilant India side, said: "The guys have been putting up a lot of effort and I think this is an ideal reflection."
The last continental championship for India came in 1995 when they beat Sri Lanka in Sharjah to win the title for the third successive time. Since then, they have lost three finals to their neighbours from across the Palk Straits, including the last two. Sri Lanka were deposed as champions after a disappointing batting performance left them well short of India's 268 for six, a total anchored by Dinesh Karthik, who scored 66 in 84 balls.
It was a consummate team performance by the Indians. Ashish Nehra led the way with four wickets for 40, including the prized scalps of Mahela Jayawardene and Angelo Mathews in the same over, and Kumar Sangakkara in the next.
Sri Lanka lost those three crucial wickets for the addition of just one run. They were five down with 218 still needed and India knew the game was in the bag. This was only the fifth victory for India in 24 50-over finals since 1999 and came after the disappointment of the World Twenty and triangular series in Zimbabwe.
"It is good that we have won the Asia Cup after a long time," said Dhoni, who had five victims behind the stumps, in the post-match television interview. "I am really happy with the performance over here, in this game also. We got the kind of start we needed. In between the batsmen got starts but couldn't convert it to big innings. Still, we were happy to get 270-odd runs on the board.
"We wanted to get [Tillakaratane] Dilshan out early because even if he stays for two or three overs, he can just take 30 or 40 runs out of your total. "So it was really good that we got him in the first over and after that, the kind of bowling that was shown by Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, I think it was one of the best spells you can see under the conditions."
Praveen Kumar struck an early blow for India, dismissing Dilshan for nought in the first over when the Sri Lankan batsman tried an ambitious pull from wide outside the off-stump. Zaheer bowled a probing spell at the other end, going for only three runs from his first three overs, and his persistent efforts were finally rewarded with the wicket of Upul Tharanga.
The Sri Lanka opener shouldered arms to a delivery that cut back and clipped his off-stump. Nehra then dismissed Jayawardene and Mathews in his second over to reduce Sri Lanka to four for 50 in the 14th over. Both batsmen fell chasing deliveries outside the off stump. The left-arm India seamer went on to deliver the final blow to Sri Lanka's hopes when Sangakkara dragged a short ball to Zaheer at mid-wicket.
At five for 51, any hopes of victory for the home team vanished and the focus shifted to making the defeat look palatable. Chamara Kapugedera tried his best towards that end with a battling, unbeaten 55. "I think the difference was in the first 15 overs - the way they bowled and the way we bowled in helpful conditions," Sangakkara, the Sri Lanka captain, said in a television interview after the match.
"Losing four wickets for not many, especially at the top order, was not a good way to start. I thought 270 was probably a chaseable total. "It was a fresh wicket and the conditions probably favoured the bowling side, but I thought a bit more application in our batting and a bit more attacking mindset would have probably seen us through that five-over period." * Compiled by Ahmed Rizvi
India: Gautam Gambhir run out 15 Dinesh Karthik c Jayawardene b Kandamby 66 Virat Kohli c Sangakkara b Malinga 28 Mahendra Singh Dhoni c Kulasekara b Kandamby 38 Rohit Sharma c Maharoof b Kulasekara 41 Suresh Raina lbw Malinga 29 Ravindra Jadeja not out 25 Harbhajan Singh not out 7 Extras: (2b, 7lb, 1nb, 9w) 19.
Total: (for six wickets, 50 pvers) 268.
Fall of wickets: 1-38, 2-100, 3-146, 4-167, 5-217, 6-249.
Bowling: Nuwan Kulasekara 9-0-44-1 (2w), Lasith Malinga 10-0-57-2 (1nb, 6w), Farveez Maharoof 6-0-41-0, Angelo Mathews 3-1-16-0, Muttiah Muralitharan 10-0-34-0, Thilina Kandamby 7-0-37-2, Tillakaratne Dilshan 5-0-30-0 (1w).
Sri Lanka: Upul Tharanga b Khan 16 Tillakaratne Dilshan c Harbhajan b Kumar 0 Kumar Sangakkara c Khan b Nehra 17 Mahela Jayawardene c Dhoni b Nehra 11 Angelo Mathews c Dhoni b Nehra 0 Thilina Kandamby run out 31 Chamara Kapugedera not out 55 Farveez Maharoof c Dhoni b Khan 10 Nuwan Kulasekara st Dhoni b Jadeja 20 Lasith Malinga c Jadeja b Nehra 7 Muttiah Muralitharan c Dhoni b Jadeja 2 Extras (4b, 3lb, 2nb, 9w) 18
Total: (all out, 44.4 overs) 187
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-31, 3-50, 4-50, 5-51, 6-104, 7-132, 8-168, 9-177, 10-187.
Bowling: Praveen Kumar 9-1-29-1 (1nb, 2w), Zaheer Khan 8-2-36-2 (2w), Ashish Nehra 9-0-40-4 (3w), Harbhajan Singh 9-0-30-0 (2w), Virat Kohli 3-0-16-0, Ravindra Jadeja 6.4-0-29-2 (1nb)