India men's cricket team has set a challenging target of 170 runs for Sri Lanka in the second semi-final match of the Asian Games 2026 at the Korogi Sports Park in Nisshin on Thursday.

The winner of this match will clash with Pakistan in the gold medal match on Saturday. India are the defending champions at the Asian Games.

Asked to bat first, India started the batting with two lefties - Abhishek Sharma and the 15-year-old prodigy Vaibhav Sooryavanshi. 

Sri Lanka started the proceedings in the bowling with spinner Tharindu Ratnayake, who conceded just five runs including a boundary from Sooryavanshi. Abhishek started the next over with a six, but Sahan Arachchige got his revenge on the very next delivery and dismissed him. Abhishek made just seven runs off three balls.

Then came Sanju Samson on the pitch but couldn't stay for long as Ratnayake got rid of him in his second over. Samson also made just seven runs.

Captain Shreyas Iyer came ahead of Ishan Kishan, and he added 35 runs for the third wicket with Sooryavanshi, in which the teenager made most of the runs. Sooryavanshi collected a couple of boundaries from Binuar Fernando's over and hit three consecutive boundaries in the next over of Ratnayake.

He went on to hit another boundary in the next over of Fernando and helped India make 58 runs in the powerplay.

Sahan Arachchige got his second wicket of the match when he dismissed Sooryavanshi right after the powerplay, and the run-flow started to decline. Ishan Kishan played a few big shots, but India lost the wicket of their captain in the 10th over. Iyer made a run-a-ball 13.

Then the Lankan spinners dominated for a few overs and kept the Indian batters at bay. Lasith Croospulle dismissed Axar Patel in the 14th over, who made a struggling eight off 13 balls.

In the next over, Kishan tried to change the batting gears and hit a couple of boundaries. But Nuwanidu Fernando got rid of Tilak Varma on the final delivery of the over.

Then Shivam Dube joined Kishan on the crease, but he also couldn't stay for long and went back to the pavillion after making just three runs off nine balls.

Kishan completed his half-century with a six and managed to collect at least a boundary in the next three overs. Washington Sundar and Kishan hit a six each in the 20th over to take India to a fighting total as India ended their innings on 169/7.

Kishan remained unbeaten on 80 off 46 balls. He hit five sixes and four fours in his big knock. Now, the onus will be on Jasprit Bumrah and the Indian spinners to put up a good performance while defending a total which could be challenging for Sri Lanka, considering the patches on the pitch. 

Source: ANI

-Agencies