🏏Asia Cup 2022 Final : Sri Lanka vs Pakistan 🏏 - Page 3

The winning team of Asia Cup 2022 will receive a grand amount of Rs 1,59,53,000 (approx). The team finishing second in the tournament will take home a cheque of Rs 79,66,000.

Winning amount is 10% of Rohit's IPL fees😳

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There's been a lot of noise around the toss and whether the toss winner is automatically the match winner. The irrefutable fact remains that barring the two Hong Kong games and India's win over Afghanistan, all other games in the Asia Cup have been won by the side chasing. However, Pakistan seem to be building a champion side, and their coach Saqlain Mushtaq has addressed the topic saying that "champion teams do not think or talk about the toss." Another positive for Pakistan is just how well Shadab Khan has bowled (and batted, in his limited opportunities), which Shashank Kishore explores further in this #MustRead feature.

Let's just dive straight into today's contest. Before we break down what to expect today in a more detailed manner, here's the match preview penned by Danyal, where he shares Pakistan's love-hate relationship with the Asia Cup, but also leaves us wondering whether Sri Lanka have the psychological edge to clinch today's game, more so after their (comprehensive) win on Friday over the same team.

Dasun Shanaka celebrated his 31st birthday when Sri Lanka beat Pakistan on Friday, but irrespective of whether his team has brought him a present or not, we all know the present he wants from his team is the Asia Cup trophy. He has been one of the key pieces behind Sri Lanka's surging run, and Andrew Fidel Fernando breaks down exactly how Sri Lanka have fought their way into this match. Elsewhere, we caught up with Mickey Arthur and Farveez Maharoof on our pre-match preview show where both seem to agree that while Sri Lanka may be marginal favourites, they would know, hand-on-heart, that pound-for-pound, Pakistan are the stronger side on paper.

Now, what are the match-ups that could decide this contest? There's Naseem Shah vs Nissanka-Mendis at the top of the innings, of course, to start proceedings. The duo have produced three 40+ opening stands in five games. Then there's Bhanuka Rajapaksa v Shadab Khan, a H2H where Rajapaksa has scored at a strike-rate of 155.17 against the wristspinner. Then there's the mouth-watering idea of Haris Rauf's pace against Shanaka's aggression: Shanaka has a strike-rate of 195.83 at the death at the Asia Cup, but Rauf's combination of slow balls and yorkers are a delectable combination. After that, there's the big Wanindu Hasaranga v Babar Azam contest too, which we got a taster of on Friday, that had the spinner keep the Pakistan captain quiet. Dilshan Madushanka's left-arm seam vs Mohammad Rizwan could be another important mini-battle and the last match-up I'm looking forward to is how Sri Lanka deal with Mohammad Nawaz (the allrounder).

Adil Abbasi : "Rooting for Pakistan to win. Middle order batting is a bit of worry for Pakistan as it collapsed in almost every match. All ready blood pressure machine on table, water and headache tablets, inhaler etc as we need these anytime during Pakistan match."

Under ten minutes for the all-important toss, just enough time for you to see what our Fantasy Picks for this game is.

Sheikh: "1st time Shanaka captained sri lanka in Pakistan tour. I was their in Gadaffi stadium to witness his team heroic performance. Since then this energetic young team has done good in games! Best of luck to both teams "

SirWasimMuridke: "Whatever happens is acceptable in this match except one-sided finale. "

What They Said:

"The combination we have with the left-arm fast bowlers, the leg spinners - the variation we have is amazing. These are areas we can improve, if we could get early wickets in the next game that will be good." - Dasun Shanaka

"This [Friday's game vs Sri Lanka] was definitely a good learning experience, we will sit back and analyze this game, and see where we can improve for Sunday." - Babar Azam

Did You Know:

- Hasaranga has an economy rate of 6.25 against Pakistan in T20Is. He has picked 11 wickets in 16 overs against them - his returns of 3 for 21 on Friday is his best.

- Naseem Shah has picked 6 wickets in 14 overs in this Asia Cup, bowling at an economy rate of 7

Tactics & Matchups: After Friday, countering Sri Lanka's spin threat will be top-priority. Shadab Khan was tidy with the bat at #5 in the thriller against Afghanistan, and could once again be Pakistan's spin. He has the experience of doing well against spin in PSL - averaging 36.75 at a strike rate of 142.71.

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