Sri Lanka ‘A’ suffered a heartbreaking loss against Afghanistan ‘A’ in their second game of the ACC Men’s Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2023, which was played today (15th July) at CCC Grounds, Colombo.
Sri Lanka ‘A’ skipper Dunith Wellalage won the toss and put the opposition side to bat first early in the morning.
Zubaid Akbari and Riaz Hassan walked in as the openers for the Afghans. However, Wellalage’s decision to bowl first turned out to be gold as Lahiru Samarakoon, who replaced Pramod Madushan from the first game, drew the first blood. The medium pacer stroked in his very first over to remove Akbari, courtesy of Pasindu Sooriyabandara’s flying grab at the second slip.
Noor Ali Zadran joined Hassan, stitching together in a 99-run stand for the 2nd wicket. Right-arm leg spinner Dushan Hemantha broke that partnership, dismissing Zadran for 53.
Hassan and Skipper Shahidullah Kamal then added 59 runs for the third wicket before the opener was castled by Chamika Karunaratne for an excellent 82. His knock came off 104 balls and consisted of 11 boundaries.
After a solid foundation, the Afghan middle-order failed to cash in through the middle overs as the hosts reduced them to 225/6 in 45.5 overs.
Somehow, Afghanistan managed to reach the 250-run mark with an undefeated 34 runs from the wicket-keeper batsman Ikram Alikhil, helping them to set a target of 253 for Sri Lanka ‘A’.
Karunaratne was the pick of the bowlers with 3/56 in 8 overs, while Hemantha and Samarakoon starred with a couple of wickets apiece.
Avishka Fernando and Lasith Croospulle came out to open the batting for Sri Lanka. Mohammad Ibrahim provided just the perfect start for the Afghans, trapping the previous game centurion for a golden duck.
In the third over, Croospulle was castled by Ibrahim for 7 before Sooriyabandara was trapped LBW in the same over for a second-ball duck, reducing the home team to 3/12 in 2.4 overs.
Ibrahim continued to dismantle the Lankans batting as Sahan Arachchige became his fourth victim in the fifth over. Ashen Bandara and Skipper Wellalage got to good starts, but both of them fell cheaply for 19 & 21 respectively.
It suddenly went from bad to worse for Sri Lanka ‘A’, having 7 down with only 102 runs on the board as Karunaratne was the next to depart, with him being trapped front of the stumps by Zia-ur-Rehman for just 2.
Dushan Hemantha walked out to the middle as the No.09 batter and joined with No.03 batter Minod Bhanuka for the eighth wicket. The duo fought back hard and kept the scoreboard ticking with an invaluable 88-run stand.
In the meantime, the left-hander went on to register his third List A hundred off just 89 deliveries, keeping Sri Lanka in the hunt. An over later, Sharafuddin Ashraf broke that partnership by dismissing Hemantha for 31. His vital knock came off 53 balls including three fours.
Ashraf’s next over was really expensive as he gave away 17 runs for Sri Lanka. However, Saleem Safi provided the knockout blow, getting the better of Bhanuka, who smashed a magnificent 119 off 103 which included 17 fours & 1 six.
Binura Fernando came in as the last batsman to join with Samarakoon when the islanders were still requiring 24 runs for the win. Samarakoon, however, smoked a couple of sixes with his powerful levers in the 39th over against Zia-ur-Rehman. However, the latter went for another big heave in the same over, which unfortunately found the fielder at backward square-leg, sealing the victory for Afghanistan by just 11 runs with plenty of overs to spare.
Mohammad Ibrahim finished with 4/56 in 8 overs on the bowling front for the Afghans, while Saleem Safi and Zia-ur-Rehman shared 4 wickets between them.
Minod Bhanuka was adjudged as the Player of the Match for his outstanding century, despite being on the losing side.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zubaid Akbari | c Pasindu Sooriyabandara b Lahiru Samarakoon | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 33.33 |
| Riaz Hassan | c & b Chamika Karunarathne | 82 | 104 | 11 | 0 | 78.85 |
| Noor Ali Zadran | c Minod Bhanuka b Dushan Hemantha | 53 | 62 | 5 | 1 | 85.48 |
| Shahidullah | b Chamika Karunarathne | 23 | 32 | 1 | 0 | 71.88 |
| Bahir Shah | c Nuwanidu Fernando b Avishka Fernando | 15 | 15 | 0 | 1 | 100.00 |
| Ikram Alikhil | not out | 34 | 44 | 0 | 0 | 77.27 |
| Sharafuddin Ashraf | c & b Dunith Wellalage | 19 | 27 | 2 | 0 | 70.37 |
| Zia ur Rehman | c Minod Bhanuka b Dunith Wellalage | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 200.00 |
| Mohammad Ibrahim | c & b Chamika Karunarathne | 5 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 62.50 |
| Mohammad Saleem | c Ashen Bandara b Binura Fernando | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 40.00 |
| Extras | 14 (b 1 , lb 1 , nb 2, w 10, pen 0) |
| Total | 252/9 (50 Overs, RR: 5.04) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Binura Fernando | 8 | 0 | 35 | 1 | 4.38 | |
| Lahiru Samarakoon | 7 | 2 | 25 | 2 | 3.57 | |
| Dunith Wellalage | 10 | 0 | 47 | 1 | 4.70 | |
| Chamika Karunarathne | 8 | 0 | 56 | 3 | 7.00 | |
| Dushan Hemantha | 10 | 0 | 54 | 2 | 5.40 | |
| Sahan Arachchige | 7 | 0 | 33 | 0 | 4.71 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avishka Fernando | lbw b Mohammad Ibrahim | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Lasith Croospulle | b Mohammad Ibrahim | 7 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Minod Bhanuka | c Bahir Shah b Mohammad Saleem | 119 | 103 | 17 | 1 | 115.53 |
| Pasindu Sooriyabandara | lbw b Mohammad Ibrahim | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Sahan Arachchige | c Bahir Shah b Mohammad Ibrahim | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Ashen Bandara | run out (Ikram Alikhil) | 19 | 23 | 4 | 0 | 82.61 |
| Dunith Wellalage | c Ikram Alikhil b Mohammad Saleem | 21 | 18 | 3 | 1 | 116.67 |
| Chamika Karunarathne | lbw b Zia ur Rehman | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 25.00 |
| Dushan Hemantha | c Zubaid Akbari b Sharafuddin Ashraf | 31 | 53 | 3 | 0 | 58.49 |
| Lahiru Samarakoon | c Mohammad Saleem b Zia ur Rehman | 16 | 14 | 0 | 2 | 114.29 |
| Binura Fernando | not out | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Extras | 23 (b 0 , lb 2 , nb 3, w 18, pen 0) |
| Total | 241/10 (38.5 Overs, RR: 6.21) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mohammad Ibrahim | 8 | 0 | 52 | 4 | 6.50 | |
| Bilal Sami | 4 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 7.50 | |
| Mohammad Saleem | 8 | 0 | 47 | 2 | 5.88 | |
| Zia ur Rehman | 7.5 | 1 | 44 | 2 | 5.87 | |
| Riaz Hassan | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 8.00 | |
| Sharafuddin Ashraf | 8 | 0 | 47 | 1 | 5.88 | |
| Zubaid Akbari | 2 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 5.50 | |
 at CCC Grounds, Colombo.){kind=link}