A full-strength Indian line-up brushed aside Sri Lankan challenge on Thursday to qualify for the final at the Asian Games 2026 and set up a mouth-watering clash against Pakistan. The Men in Blue bundled out Sri Lanka for 45, the joint-lowest total by any full member nation in T20Is after Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel and Abhishek Sharma prized out two scalps each. With this latest victory, India also set a new record, becoming the team to register the most wins by 100 runs or more, achieving this on 11 occasions.
The 124-run margin is also the highest ever in a semi-final or final of any Men's T20I tournament featuring two full member sides. Earlier in the day, Pakistan qualified for the final of the men's cricket competition after beating Bangladesh by six wickets in a rain-curtailed match. The first semi-final was reduced to 13 overs per side, and the Sahibzada Farhan-led side came out on top, chasing the target of 112 with nine balls to spare.
The match between India and Sri Lanka saw Vaibhav Sooryavanshi get a game, and he opened the batting alongside Abhishek Sharma, moving Sanju Samson to No.3. Sri Lanka won the toss, opted to bowl, and started off well, removing both Abhishek (7) and Sanju (7).
However, Sooryavanshi showed no nerves, throwing the Sri Lankan bowlers off their length. His quickfire 38 runs helped India score more than 50 runs inside the Powerplay; however, he lost his wicket against the run of play in the seventh over. India kept losing wickets at regular intervals before Ishan Kishan made the difference.
{{/usCountry}}However, Sooryavanshi showed no nerves, throwing the Sri Lankan bowlers off their length. His quickfire 38 runs helped India score more than 50 runs inside the Powerplay; however, he lost his wicket against the run of play in the seventh over. India kept losing wickets at regular intervals before Ishan Kishan made the difference.
{{/usCountry}}The left-hander continues to go from strength to strength in 2026, and on a tricky pitch, where all the other batters, barring Sooryavanshi, struggled, he managed to walk away with an unbeaten 80, helping India post 169/7 in 20 overs. The batting performance, however, did give plenty of reasons to ponder for the management headed by VVS Laxman, as the shortcomings on spinning tracks once again came to the fore.
Sri Lanka implode
The batting performance might have given a reason or two to worry, but the bowling was pitch-perfect. India's task was made all the easier by Sri Lanka's horrid performance. Sri Lanka also decided to gift three wickets through run outs, and it just took 9.5 overs for India to bundle out Sri Lanka for a massive 124-run win.
Bumrah struck twice in his opening over, and from there, India didn't have to look back as the wickets kept coming at regular intervals. There were just four overs where the Men in Blue failed to take a single wicket as all the remaining six fetched at least one scalp.
For Sri Lanka, no batter showed any fight, and in the end, the side handed the match on a platter to India. Sri Lanka will now take on Bangladesh in the bronze medal match on Saturday, October 3 and the gold medal match between India and Pakistan will follow.