Kuldeep Yadav starred as India overcame a brilliant all-round effort from Sri Lanka's Dunith Wellalage to win a tense Asia Cup clash by 41 runs on Tuesday and book a place in the final.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Kuldeep took four wickets including the final two as India defended 213, bowling out Sri Lanka for 172 to silence a large home crowd at Colombo's R. Premadasa Stadium.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
India recorded their second straight Super Four win in the 50-over tournament, a prelude to the upcoming ODI World Cup, and ended Sri Lanka's 13-match winning streak in ODIs.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Wellalage, who claimed his maiden ODI five-wicket haul, remained unbeaten on 42 when he ran out of partners as left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep wrapped up the opposition tail in 41.3 overs.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"Kuldeep is a great bowler, I tried to play my normal game with a positive mindset," said Wellalage, who was named man of the match despite being on the losing team.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"I want to thank my team-mates and my coaching staff -- they gave me great support."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
India skipper Rohit Sharma praised Kuldeep, who also took five wickets in his team's previous win over Pakistan, for his rhythm and consistency.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"For the past year or so, bowling really, really well. He has done a lot of hard work on his rhythm," said Rohit.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"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."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
It was India's third straight day on the field after they crushed Pakistan by 228 runs on Monday in a match that was played across two days due to rain.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The next Super Four match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan on Thursday will decide the second finalists between the two teams.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
- Rohit to 10,000 runs -<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Rohit, who entered an elite list of players with over 10,000 ODI runs and hit his second successive fifty, scored 53 to hand his team a brisk start but Wellalage hit back.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The 20-year-old returned figures of 5-40 including the key wickets of Rohit and Virat Kohli with strong support from part-time spinner Charith Asalanka, who claimed four victims for 18 runs.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Wellalage struck with his first ball of the match when he bowled Shubman Gill for 19 and there was no looking back for the young spinner.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
He made the home fans erupt with the wicket of Kohli who fell for three a day after an unbeaten 122 against Pakistan at the same venue.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Rohit was also bowled by Wellalage who snared his third scalp in three overs.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Ishan Kishan, who made 33, and previous-match centurion KL Rahul attempted to rebuild the innings with a stand of 63.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Wellalage ended that partnership when he got Rahul caught and bowled for 39 and then took his fifth.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Asalanka kept chipping away from the other end and was on a hat-trick with India on 186-9, but Axar Patel took the total past 200 after a nearly 45-minute rain break and hit 26.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
India hit back with regular wickets and Jasprit Bumrah struck twice.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Asalanka attempted to increase the run-rate but became Kuldeep's second wicket.<\/p>\r\n\r\n