Sri Lanka thrashed Pakistan in Asia Cup final by 23 runs to to lift the trophy for the sixth time on Sunday. This was Pakistan's second consecutive loss to Sri Lanka in the span of two days. Babar Azam's team could not reach the target in the final clash in Dubai despite winning the toss and having the Lankans tremble at 67/5 after the first 10 overs. Bhanuka Rajapaksa's unbeaten 71 guided the Lankans to a defensive score of 170/6. After that, the Sri Lankan bowlers bowled out Pakistan for 147 to win the match and lift the trophy.
Pakistan's defeat against the Lankans in both the final and Super 4 matches shocked and saddened Pakistani fans. After the final match, the Pakistan Cricket Board captain, Ramiz Raja, lashed out at an Indian journalist who asked him to give a message to the fans after the loss.
He asked the journalist if he was from India and also hinted at whether the Indian fans would be happy with the outcome of the final. After this, a clearly angry Ramiz walked off and also tried to take away the journalist's phone.
"The people of Pakistan are very sad. What message would you give them?”, the Indian journalist asked.
The PCB chief replied saying, "Aap India se honge? Aap to bade khush honge? (Are you from India? You must be very happy then?)”.
The journalist later took to Twitter and asked why Ramiz tried to snatch his phone, "That's not right, Mr Chairman, taking my phone was not right," the journalist wrote. Ramiz Raja or Pakistan Cricket Board denied any comment on this.
(To receive our E-paper on whatsapp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
