It's the title clash to decide the champions of Asia but Mohammed Siraj came into Sunday's match against Sri Lanka in Colombo with different plans- because for the first two hours of play, it was all just about the 29-year-old Indian pacer.
Siraj had a dream outing, finishing with a haul of 6/21 as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 50 in 15.2 overs. More importantly though, he bowled possibly one of the best overs of his young career so far - picking four wickets to take Sri Lanka from 8/1 in 3 overs to 12/5 in 4 overs.
He has now become the first Indian bowler to bag four wickets in one over of men’s ODIs.
On the first ball of his second over, Siraj bowled an outswinger and Pathum Nissanka could drive only to backward point, who moved to his right to complete the catch. A dot ball later, Siraj trapped Sadeera Samawickrama lbw with a sharp nip-backer beating the inside edge and striking the batter in front of stumps.
On the very next ball, Charith Asalanka chipped the first ball he faced straight to cover point. Dhananjaya de Silva survived the hat-trick ball by punching Siraj past mid-on for four. But Siraj had the last laugh as de Silva pushed at an outswinger, giving a faint edge behind to take a catch.
Siraj inflicted more damage on Sri Lanka by grabbing his five-wicket haul when he got late movement off a fuller delivery to swing past Dasun Shanaka’s outside edge and sent the off-stump on a cartwheel ride.
Siraj equalled the feats of Sri Lanka’s Chaminda Vaas (against Bangladesh in 2003), Pakistan’s Mohammad Sami (against New Zealand in 2003) and England’s Adil Rashid (against West Indies in 2019) to take four wickets in an over of men’s ODI since 2002, thus becoming the first from India to do so.
Siraj also took 16 balls to complete his five-wicket haul, the joint-quickest to reach the mark alongside Vaas and USA's Ali Khan. Siraj also has the record now for most wickets in the first 10 overs for India in an ODI since 2002.
Playing in his 29th ODI, Siraj took 1002 balls to get his 50th wicket in the format -- the second quickest for any bowler in the history of ODIs, only behind Sri Lanka’s Ajantha Mendis' 847 balls, making him the joint-fourth-quickest among all Indian bowlers to get the milestone.
Siraj grabbed his sixth wicket by getting one to nip back in from outside off and castle Kusal Mendis through the gate, to get the record for the best bowling figures by a pace bowler in the Asia Cup, going past Pakistan’s Aaqib Javed, who picked 5/19 against India at Sharjah in 1995.
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