SIRAJ IN FULL SWING

TWICE in January this year, India pacer Mohammed Siraj got close to his maiden five-wicket haul in one-day internationals but fell short on both the occasions.

- FIROZ MIRZA

Against Sri Lanka in Thiruvananthapuram, he claimed 4/32 to bowl out opponents for 73 as India registered a massive 317-run victory, the biggest in the ODI history till date. He almost had the fifth wicket as Kasun Rajitha was given out LBW by the umpire. Rajitha, however, reviewed it and got the decision overturned as he had inside-edged it.

Three days later on January 18, he bagged 4/46 against New Zealand but again the magic figures remained elusive. On Sunday, he not only completing his maiden five-wicket haul against Sri Lanka in the 2023 Asia Cup final but also helped India to their first trophy from a multiteam tournament since the 2018 continental event. Last time against Sri Lanka I took four early wickets but couldn’t get five. I realised you get whatever is in your fate. Today, I was destined to get this. I didn’t get much swing in the earlier matches but today that I got swing, I wanted to make the batters play.