After 20 days of entertaining cricket, the Road Safety World Series eventually reached its culmination with India Legends and Sri Lanka Legends clashing in the final of the mega event.
Let’s look at the match report of the final RSWS 2022 match.
Final: India Legends vs Sri Lanka Legends
The second season of the RSWS brought together a familiar set of finalists yet again. The Sachin Tendulkar-led India Legends side joined the Tillakaratne Dilshan’s Sri Lanka Legends in a replay of the first edition’s final.
Going against the recent trend, Indian Legends chose to bat first after winning the toss. Semi-final hero Naman Ojha walked in with Sachin Tendulkar in hopes of giving a good start to their team. A sensational Nuwan Kulasekara however cocked up India’s plan as he bowled Tendulkar in the first over itself. Suresh Raina was promoted up the order after Tendulkar’s dismissal, but the southpaw became Kulasekara’s second scalp after hitting a first ball boundary.
Bowling all-rounder Vinay Kumar was also sent up the order to halt the fall of wickets. Kumar with a 21-ball 36 was able to do just that and took India’s score past 100 with Ojha continuing his semi-final form from the other end. Small contributions from Yuvraj Singh (19) and Irfan Pathan (11) allowed India to get to a massive 195/6. The biggest contribution however came from Ojha who hit his first century of the tournament (108 off 71) with 15 boundaries and two sixes.
Coming onto chase this big a total, the Sri Lanka team got off to a poor start as they lost two wickets at just 16 runs. Captain Dilshan couldn’t do much either as he was stumped by centurion Ojha in the seventh over. Wicket-keeper batter Upul Tharanga (10) and Asela Gunaratne (19) also failed to come good with the bat when the team needed it the most. It was the lower-order batter Ishan Jayaratne (51) who tried to counter India’s bowling with the bat and hit a quickfire half-century.
196, however, proved a target too far for Sri Lanka as India’s bowling prevailed in the high-profile final. Sri Lanka Legends could only make 162/10 in 18.5 overs and lost the game by 33 runs.
On the back of a great batting performance, India Legends were able to win the Road Safety World Series trophy for the second time. Naman Ojha was adjudged the man of the match for his unbeaten century knock and Tillakaratne Dilshan was deemed the best player of the tournament for making 192 runs and taking five wickets.
India Legends vs Sri Lanka Legends Brief Scoreboard:
India Legends: 195/6
Naman Ojha: 108, Vinay Kumar: 36(21)
Vinay Kumar: 3.5-38-3, Abhimanyu Mithun: 4-27-2
Sri Lanka Legends: 162/10
Ishan Jayaratne: 51(22), Mahela Udawatte: 26(19)
Nuwan Kulasekara: 3-29-3, Isuru Udana: 4-34-2
