Asia Cup 2023: That Was My Best Wicket Till Date – Mohammed Siraj Opens Up On The Dream Dismissal Of Dasun Shanaka

Indian speedster Mohammed Siraj was happy with his performance against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup final on Sunday in Colombo. The 29-year-old ripped the Sri Lanka top-order with his lethal new-ball bowling to pick up his maiden five-wicket haul in ODI Cricket.

Mohammed Siraj has been India’s most consistent bowler in recent times and the Indian pacer picked up four wickets in his second over of the game in Colombo. The bowler dismissed Pathum Nissanka, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, and Dhananjaya de Silva with his upright swing and seam bowling in the Island nation.

Speaking on BCCI.tv, Mohammed Siraj was delighted with his new-ball bowling against Sri Lanka in the grand final and recalled his earlier best spell against Sri Lanka in India and revealed that the idea was to bowl in the right areas in the game to pick up early wickets.

“The spell was like magic. I had never thought I would bowl such a good spell. I had picked 4 wickets against Sri Lanka earlier in Trivandrum as well, but was not able to get my 5th despite bowling 6 overs.”

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“I found swing early on and then I told myself that there was no need to hit the wicket hard. I thought that if I bowled in the right areas I would get swing and that was my plan,” Mohammed Siraj said.

Siraj is the second bowler in the Asia Cup 50-over format to pick up a 6-wicket haul after Sri Lanka’s Ajanta Mendis in the 2008 Asia Cup. The Indian pacer caused havoc with the ball, taking 6/21 in his seven overs to immediately put Sri Lanka in trouble.

I Had Been Practising This Ball From The West Indies – Mohammed Siraj

Speaking on the dream delivery to Dasun Shanaka, Mohammed Siraj said that he had been practising that ball to dismiss Shanaka starting from the Caribbean series to bowl the ball from the wide of the crease and feels that it was the best wicket for him in International Cricket.

“I had been practising this ball from the West Indies series, to come from wide of the crease and bowl an outswinger. It worked out perfectly and that was my best wicket till date. It happened exactly the way I planned it out,” Mohammed Siraj added.

Siraj bowled a brilliant outswinger for Dasun Shanaka after picking up four wickets in his second over of the game and had the skipper playing the wrong line and lost his off-stump and also picked up Kusal Mendis as his sixth wicket in the game.