Asia Cup 2023: Sri Lanka beat Pakistan by 2 wickets to book place in final

COLOMBO – Sri Lanka won the match against Pakistan by two wickets in the Super Four stage of the Asia Cup on Thursday. 

Earlier, Pakistan made a total of 252 runs for a loss of seven wickets at the end of their innings in their do-or-die game at Colombo.

Earlier, Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat first. 

The match has been reduced to 42 overs for each side after it started with delay due to rain.

This could be the virtual semi-final against Sri Lanka for Pakistan as India is the only team to have won both Super Four games, defeating Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The Blues have qualified for the competition's final after two straight victories.

On the other side, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have split their Super Four matches, winning one and losing the other. Both Sri Lanka and Pakistan defeated Bangladesh, however, the former's NRR is slightly higher than the latter's.

Pakistan will hope that the weather will not play spoilsport as the expected wash-off could eliminate Men in Green from Asia Cup 2023. 

Pakistan made five changes in the team fielded against India in the Super Four match earlier this week. 

Mohammad Haris, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Zaman Khan and Mohammad Nawaz have been included in the Playing XI as Fakhar Zaman, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Faheem Ashraf and Salman Ali Aghan have been ruled out for the Sri Lanka game.

Rain Predictions

Weather reports indicate that there will likely be rain throughout the aforementioned match, and the chance of play is poor. 

The Weather Channel predicts an 86 percent chance of rain in Colombo Today, raising questions about the fate of the game.

Contrarily, AccuWeather predicts that the game will be played entirely under overcast conditions. However, data show that there is still a constant danger of rain, with an 84 percent chance of precipitation and a 95 percent chance of cloud cover throughout the day. While it is anticipated that there won't be as much rain during the day, there will still be clouds in the sky.