What an incredible match performance shown by the Afghanistan players. Yet they lost the match by 2 runs but still they showed great courage towards the end and missed the win by just a few inches.
As Sri Lanka scored 291/8 in 50 overs. Therefore for Afghanistan to qualify for the Super four they had to chase down the target in 37.1 overs but unfortunately they missed and scored 289/10 in 37.4 overs.
Sri Lanka won their first match against Bangladesh by 5 wickets whereas Afghanistan lost the match against Bangladesh by a great destruction shown by Shanto and Miraz and lost the match by 89 runs.
Sri Lanka after winning the toss opted to bat first.
Lankans got a good start as their openers Pathum Nissanka (41 runs) and Dimuth Karunaratne (32 runs) put 63 runs for the 1st wicket. After that a great innings played by Kusal Mendis (92 runs) in the middle, but he was unfortunate as Dasun Shanaka played a delivery bowled by Rashid Khan and it touches the hand of Rashid and direct hit the wickets at the non-striker end where Mendis was there and he out of the crease and got out. Mendis hit 6 fours and 3 sixes in his innings.
In the end Dunith Wellalage (33 runs) and Maheesh Theekshana (28 runs) provided valuable 64 runs for the 8th wicket and posted a solid score of 291 runs at the end of the overs by losing 8 wickets.
Gulbadin Naib took 4 wickets while Rashid Khan being expensive took 2 wickets. Mujeeb ur Rahman got 1 wicket.
The Afghans didn’t get a good start and they lost 3 wickets in just 50 runs which almost took them away from the contest. But thanks to Rahmat Shah (45 runs), Hashmatullah Shahidi (59 runs) and Mohammad Nabi (65 runs) took the match to a thrilling one. Nabi posted the fastest fifty from the Afghanistan side in 24 balls.
In the end Rashid Khan (27 runs), Karim Janat (22 runs) and Najibullah Zadran (23 runs) tried their best but couldn’t achieve the final touch. Their hard hitting in the end makes the match too close but victory remains untouched. They posted 289 runs in 37.4 overs and lost all their wickets.
Kasun Rajitha grabbed 4 wickets. Dunith Wellange got 2 wickets and Dhananjaya de Silva performed a match winning spell as he took 2 wickets in the deciding over and also won the match for his team. Maheesh Theekshana and Matheesha Pathirana got 1 wicket each.
Kusal Mendis, Sri Lanka, Player of the Match
“We batted well in the first ten overs and then in the middle overs. I did my best today. We were under pressure. The bowlers did a great job. With four fielders outside the circle, it’s very hard to bowl. We did well in all three departments and that’s why we won. Wellalage bowled really well, he got two wickets in an over. Matheesha also bowled well, he’s improving.”
Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afghanistan Captain
“Very disappointed about it (for the loss). We fought well, we gave our 100%. Proud of the team for the way we played, the way we batted. I think in the last couple of years we played good cricket in the ODI format also. We are still learning a lot. We had a lot of positives in this tournament. We are very close to the World Cup, what we did wrong here we will learn and be better for the World Cup. Our crowd is always supporting us. We are thankful to them. We tried our best to give something back to them today, we feel sorry for them.”
Dasun Shanaka, Sri Lanka Captain
“It’s a tough one. Very hard to defend such a total. DDS and my wicket that was the important part of the game. Mendis and Asalanka built the innings really well. We didn’t chip today. Credit to Theekshana and Wellalage. They played brilliantly to finish 291. Kasun opened the door for us. Nabi played an outstanding innings which almost took away the game from us. We found a way to win.”