India beat Sri Lanka by 124 runs to enter men’s cricket final

NISSHIN, Oct 1: Ishan Kishan's calculated 46-ball 80 on a difficult track laid the foundation as defending champions India hammered Sri Lanka by 124 runs in the Asian Games men's cricket semifinal here on Thursday to set up a gold medal clash with arch-foes Pakistan.

Kishan and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (38 off 21) took India to 169 for seven in 20 overs on a turning track after Sri Lanka put them in to bat on winning the toss.

While chasing the 170-run target, the island nation first collapsed to 31 for six inside the powerplay before being eventually bundled out for 45, which is the joint lowest T20 International total by a Test-playing nation. West Indies was dismissed for the same score in 2019 against England.

Jasprit Bumrah struck twice in his opening over and was then joined by Axar Patel, who also claimed two wickets.

Brief Scores:

India: 169 for 7 in 20 overs (Ishan Kishan 80; Sahan Arachchige 2/28).

Sri Lanka: 45 allout in 9.5 overs (Nuwanidu Fernando 15; Jasprit Bumrah 2/7, Axar Patel 2/8, Abhishek Sharma 2/2 ). (PTI)