Asia Cup 2023: Who will face India in final, if Pak vs Lanka gets washed out

New Delhi: The hosts Pakistan is all set to take on the defending champions Sri Lanka on Thursday, in their final Super 4 clash.

The match is virtually a semi-final clash, as a loss for either of the teams will mean the end of their journey, while the other team will walk straight into the finals to set up a clash with India on Sunday.

The stage is set for yet another massive clash! The co-hosts of the tournament, lock horns today, in a must win encounter. The winner of today’s match will face India in the finals!#AsiaCup2023 #PAKvsSL pic.twitter.com/LWgmkPHr7l

— AsianCricketCouncil (@ACCMedia1) September 14, 2023

Both the teams are coming out after losing to the men in blue within the 24-hour span, after securing their first match against Bangladesh, and now stand face to face with each other for a place in the finals.

Sri Lanka currently outranks Pakistan in the points table despite having exactly the same number of points on the board, i.e. two points, thanks to India handing Pakistan a severe beat down by 228 runs and damaging their net run rate in the process.

However, the issue that will be most concerning for the hosts is the probability of rain in Colombo on Thursday. According to the early weather reports, there is a 90 per cent chance of rain on the match day.

Notably, if the rain decides to play the spoilsport and the match ends in a no-contest, it will be the defending champions who will make it to the finals and face team India on Sunday, as there is no reserve day for Thursday’s clash.

So, the only equation with which Pakistan can go through into the finals is a win against the defending champions.

Unfortunately, the challenge is not going to be easy for Pakistan, as they are forced to face high-spirited Sri Lanka without the services of two of their mainline bowlers, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah, who will not be a part of the team because of muscle inflammation and hand injury respectively.

While Haris is supposed to feature in the finals if Pakistan can make it through, Naseem has been ruled out of the Asia Cup 2023 and is replaced by Zaman Khan in the team.