Defending champions India registered their biggest T20I win against Sri Lanka to make the final of the 2026 Asian Games men’s competition in Nisshin on Thursday.

A day after the ODI side chased down 406 against West Indies like it was child’s play on a flat Guwahati pitch, the T20I side scraped their way to 169, well above-par on a treacherous track filled with cracks. Sri Lanka were no match after that.

The result sets up the first India vs Pakistan final of 2026, and there will be a gold medal at stake.

Sri Lanka were a touch unlucky as Ishan Kishan miscued many aerial shots but they all fell in no-man’s land. But Nuwanidu Fernando did drop Kishan on 56, and that didn’t help as he went on to make 80* in just 46 balls. There were a couple of balls that misbehaved wildly, and it was a sign of things to come.

The chase felt like an act of cruelty against batters. Jasprit Bumrah bowled Test lengths and added new degrees of unplayability to the existing ones. Axar Patel bowled 14 dots and got a two-for and India finished the game with a team hat-trick. On top of all that, Sri Lanka suffered three run outs, two of which were of top-four batters.

In the end, they were rolled over for 45, the second lowest total in men’s games at the Asian Games and the joint-lowest total for a Full-Member team in men’s T20Is, alongside West Indies’ 45 against England in 2019.

India picked four spinners in their XI and Sri Lanka three in what was their first bit of action at the competition after their quarter-final fixtures were rained out. It proved to be the right strategy as spinners bowled 83% of all the balls bowled (149 out 179) across the 29.5 overs of play. They took 12 wickets, bowled 73 dots and went at an economy of 6.56. The quick bowlers conceded 44 runs in 30 balls. Bumrah’s share in that: 2 for 7 in two overs.

The bowlers’ domination started early in the game as the weather held for the second game running on the day.

Both Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson fell to fingerspin while trying to open up the off side. Samson made room and looked to go inside out over cover and was beaten by extravagant spin, but went for it again and Tharindu Ratnayake fired the ball in to smash his stumps. Sahan Arachchige, who had Abhishek lob one to short third, then checked every form of deviation to knock over Shreyas Iyer – the ball angled in, dipped, drew the batter forward and turned away to hit the stumps.

In the chase, Sineth Jayawardena looked to take Bumrah on early and looked hapless as the ball seamed in to beat the across-the-line swing and hit him on the back leg in front of all three. Sohan de Livera fell victim to Bumrah’s exaggerated angle from over the wicket and nicked to the keeper. For the first time in a men’s T20I, India has taken two wickets before conceding a run.

The fifth ball of Bumrah’s second over trampolined off a length, seemed to pick up pace off the pitch, and needed Samson to leap right up to catch it. Nuwanidu, the batter, was lucky that the line of the ball was not straighter.

Despite the Bumrah threat, India did not turn to pace for the remainder of the innings. That was likely because Lasith Croospulle was run out by sharp work from Ravi Bishnoi at short third in the over before, and Arachchige and Ashen Bandara committing the cardinal sin of sweeping Axar and giving away their wickets.

Washington Sundar’s introduction with Sri Lanka on 18 for 5 did not faze Nuwanidu. The first ball spun big but went down leg. Next three balls had two sixes, the second an effortless twirl of the bat to send the ball over long-on. Then Nuwanidu went for a non-existent single to short third and Sri Lanka ran their way out to a point of no return.

In conditions where batting was far from easy, Kishan and Vaibhav Sooryavanshi found ways to maximise the strengths of their respective games.

Sooryavanshi opened up the off side repeatedly by either making room or standing still and slapping balls, even when they were angling in. He brought up India’s 50 with 4, 6, 4 off Tharindu Ratnayake but fell to Arachchige, in similar fashion to Abhishek, soon after. He made 38 off 21. Only behind Kishan’s 80 not out. The next highest individual score was Nuwanidu’s 15.

Kishan then walked out and hit two sixes in his first 12 balls. He waited for the bad ball and wasn’t going to miss out if he got one… or two. However, he had to take chances as Shreyas Iyer fell and Axar – promoted above Tilak Varma – got stuck. Kishan’s reverse sweep off Arachchige from a leg-stump line during this slowdown showed he could pull off risks on demand.

Both Axar and Tilak fell cheaply but took India past 100 with handy stands with Kishan, who forced errors out of bowlers and brought up a 33-ball fifty in the 17th. He could have been out twice in the next two balls but survived a ball that turned in a right angle and Nuwanidu’s drop at mid-off.

India hit four sixes and four fours in the last eight overs. Kishan hit all of them bar the last six, hit by Washington. That took them to 169 for 7, a par score in general, maybe twice the par on the day.

Scores:
India 169 for 7  in 20 overs (Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 38, Shreyas Iyer 13,  Ishan Kishan 80*;  Tharindu Ratnayake 2-32, Sahan Arachchige 2-28, Wanuja Sahan 1-17, Lasith Croospullle 1-25, Nuwanidu Fernando 1-20) beat Sri Lanka 45 in 905 overs  (Nuwanidu Fernando 15; Jasprit Bumrah 2-07, Axar Patel 2-08, Washington Sundar 1-18,   Abhishek Sharma  2-2,  ) by 124 runs

[Cricinfo]

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bowl first in the Asian games semifinal clash against India.

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(Aljazeera)