The reigning Asian Games champions are one step from retaining their title. On Thursday in Nisshin, India dismantled Sri Lanka in the men’s semi-final, posting the largest T20I victory margin in their history and booking a gold medal clash with Pakistan, the first India versus Pakistan final of 2026.
Only a day earlier, India’s ODI side had hunted down 406 against West Indies in Guwahati with astonishing ease. The T20 unit faced a very different assignment. The surface was cracked, uneven and unpredictable, and a total of 169 turned out to be worth far more than it looked.
Ishan Kishan was the architect. Plenty of his lofted strokes did not middle the bat, yet each one landed safely between fielders. Sri Lanka also gave him a lifeline when Nuwanidu Fernando spilled a catch with the left-hander on 56. Kishan took full advantage, finishing unbeaten on 80 from 46 deliveries. Several deliveries during that innings leapt and darted unpredictably, hinting at what awaited the chasing side.
What followed was brutal. Jasprit Bumrah pitched the ball full and hard, almost in red-ball fashion, and made an already nasty surface even more menacing. Axar Patel tied batters down with 14 dot balls and collected two wickets. India even completed a team hat-trick during the carnage. Sri Lanka also helped their own downfall with three run outs, two of them claiming members of their top four.
The innings folded for just 45. That is the second-smallest total ever recorded in a men’s contest at the Asian Games, and it matches the lowest score by a Full Member nation in men’s T20Is, equalling West Indies’ 45 against England in 2019.
India now wait for the biggest stage, with Pakistan and a gold medal ahead.
