Rajapaksa, the hero of Sri Lanka's victory, retired in pride - usatimes1

Rajapaksa, the hero of Sri Lanka's victory, retired in pride!

If you lose the toss, lose the match! Such was the custom in this year's Asia Cup. But in the final, Vanuka Rajapakse came and messed everything up. He showed that the match can be won by batting first. Five-faced cricket world praised Rajapaksa who made Sri Lanka the champion by playing an amazing innings in the final. But this 30-year-old was not supposed to play in the Asia Cup.

Sri Lanka got off to a poor start in the Asia Cup final, losing the toss and batting. The Lankans were afraid of losing even before batting first. Disoriented by Pakistan's pace attack, the Lankans lost five wickets after scoring only 58 runs. The fans who were hoping to see a crowded finale were disappointed thinking about the finale. Just then Vanuka Rajapakse and Wannidu Hasaranga counter attack at the crease.

Hasarangar-Rajapaksa got 58 runs. It gives rise to the hope of returning to the match. However, Hasaranga, who scored 36 runs, left immediately after Haris Rauf's ball. The Lankans are afraid of going down again with few runs.

But Rajapakse is not an asthmatic. Planned to modernize the Pakistani bowlers with Karunaratne. The two scored 54 runs in the last 31 balls. Where Karunaratna's contribution is 14 for 14. Rajapakse added 40 runs in the remaining 17 balls! Vanuka eventually remained unbeaten on 71 off 45 balls.

Sri Lanka, in danger of being all out under 100, got a challenging capital of 170 runs. After that, Hasaranga's deadly strike with the ball confirmed Sri Lanka's sixth Asia Cup title.

Rajapaksa, who grabbed all the limelight as the hero of the final, might have remembered the month of January this year.

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Earlier in the year, Vanuka Rajapaksa announced his retirement from the Sri Lankan national team on January 5. His retirement at the age of 30 surprised everyone at the time. He said he wanted to spend time with his family as the reason for his retirement. But the reason behind it was different.

He announced his retirement at such a young age mainly due to conflict with the board. Vanuka, Sri Lanka's top run-scorer in the 2010 U-19 World Cup, was dropped from the squad in 2021 due to fitness reasons.

Sri Lankan coach Mickey Arthur took several measures to improve the fitness of the players. Fix the fitness criteria. The chubby Bhanuka was dropped from the team as he could not please the coach with that standard and fielding. At that time, he was fined 5000 US dollars for criticizing the team formation process of the Sri Lankan board as he was excluded from the team. After that he announced his retirement.

The sports ministry of the country was shaken when the letter was sent to the board about the decision of retirement. Vanuka Rajapaksa withdrew his letter of retirement after the intervention of Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa.

Bhagyis came back from retirement that day. Otherwise, the country suffering from political-economic crisis might not be able to celebrate the title today. The cricket world also missed the Lankans' victory in Asia after rising like a phoenix from the rubble