Bhanuka Rajapaksa smashed an outstanding 71 off 45 balls to propel Sri Lanka to 170 for six in the final of the Asia Cup against Pakistan on Sunday in Dubai.

After being sent to bat first after losing the toss, Sri Lanka lost five wickets in just 58 runs. Pakistan made a great start sending three Sri Lankan batters back to the dressing room inside the powerplay.

Naseem Shah scalped Kusal Mendis in the first over. Kusal suffered a golden duck. They also lost Pathum Nissanka (8), Danushka Gunathilaka (1) and Dasun Shanaka (2) in quick succession.

Dhananjaya de Silva scored 28 in his try to bring Sri Lanka back to track after the initial blow. He was going well until giving a return catch to Iftikhar Ahmed.

Read: Who is the current top Asian leg-spinner in T20I Cricket?

When Sri Lanka’s batting line looked fragile and waiting for a disaster, Rajapaksa and Wanindu Hasaranga came up with a 58-run stand on the sixth wicket, which eventually helped them to post a challenging total.

It was a tremendous act of recovery from Sri Lanka that helped them to have a total exceeding 160-run in the final.

Hasraranga fell prey to Haris Rauf for 36 off 21 balls. Chamika Karunaratne’s 14-run cameo also helped the Lankans to put up a good total to defend in the final. After the sixth-wicket stand was broken, Sri Lanka added 50-plus runs in the last 30 balls with the help of Chamika’s 14.

For Pakistan, Haris Rauf bagged three wickets conceding 29 runs while Naseem, Shadab Khan and Iftikhar took one wicket each. If Pakistan had not missed some catches at the end, Haris would have ended with a few more wickets.

Pakistan had shown some good fielding, they would have wrapped up Sri Lanka for a smaller total. The team of Babar Azam was so sloppy on the ground in the final.