India defeated Sri Lanka by 41 runs in a super four match to secure their place in the final of the Asia Cup here on Tuesday. Asked to bowl first, left-arm spinner Dunith Wellalage (5/40) took a fifer as Sri Lanka bowled India out for 213. The spin duo of Wellalage and Charith Asalanka (4/18) wreaked havoc in the middle overs to bundle out India in 49.1 overs after skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat. Rohit (53) top-scored for India. There was a brief rain interruption with just three overs remaining in India’s innings. Sri Lanka lost wickets at regular intervals as Kuldeep Yadav returned with impressive figures of 4 for 43, while Jasprit Bumrah (2/30) picked up early wickets to hand India the win. Sri Lanka were all out for 172 in 41.3 overs. For Sri Lanka, Wellalage (42 not out) top-scored with the bat after a brilliant bowling display. Rohit Sharma, Indian captain:, said, Was a good game. For us also to play a game like that under pressure on a slightly challenging pitch. Challenging in a lot of aspects. Definitely looking to play on pitches like this to see what we can achieve, we might as well come here and play on pitches like these. [on Hardik] He has worked really hard in his bowling for the last couple of years. It doesn’t happen overnight and it’s pleasing to see. He looked like taking a wicket off every ball. Was not an easy target to defend as the pitch got easier at the end and we had to put it consistently in one area and I think we did quite well. [on Kuldeep] For the past year or so bowling really really well. He has done a lot of hard work on his rhythm. He went back to the drawing board and worked on it. The ball is coming out nicely and you can see the results in the last 10 ODIs. KL Rahul said, It was amazing, we were tested throughout. We were not on the field for 100 overs but how many ever overs we were there it tested us physically, great to see we turned up today and gave it our best. We

