The 2010 Asia Cup (also known as Micromax Asia Cup) was the tenth edition of the Asia Cup cricket tournament, which was held in Sri Lanka from 15–24 June 2010. Only the test playing nations India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were taking part in the competition. India defeated Sri Lanka by 81 runs in the final to win a record 5th Asia Cup title.[1]
The final of the 2010 Asia Cup was played on 24 June 2010 in Dambulla between India and Sri Lanka. Indian captain MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first. Gautam Gambhir and Dinesh Karthik gave India a promising start but Gambhir was soon dismissed at 30 with India rollicking at 38/1 off 6.1 overs. Then Virat Kohli and Karthik put up a partnership of 62 runs after which Kohli was caught by Kumar Sangakkara behind the wickets. The highest scorer for the Indian team was Karthik (66 off 84) followed by Rohit Sharma (41) and MS Dhoni (38). India managed to score 268/6 in their 50 overs with Sri Lanka needing 269 runs to win the championship.
Sri Lanka innings
The Sri Lankan batting started off to a slow start with Tillakaratne Dilshan caught in the first over. First five wickets fell off in quick succession within the score of 50 runs. Upul Tharanga, Mahela Jayawardene, Angelo Mathews and Kumar Sangakkara followed Dilshan soon after. After this, a promising partnership developed between Thilina Kandamby and Chamara Kapugedera (55 runs) which seemed to bring back Sri Lankan hopes in the match. But after the fall of this partnership, Sri Lanka never managed to recover and were all out for a score of 187 in 44.4 overs. India won the match by 81 runs, and with it, the Asia Cup after 15 years.
Summary
Thilina Kandamby (2/37 in 7 overs) was the best in the bowling department for Sri Lanka, followed by Lasith Malinga who also took 2 wickets giving 57 runs in 10 overs.