Afghanistan laid down the marker in the Asia Cup, steamrolling Sri Lanka in the curtain-raiser of the tournament, with a 8-wicket win.
Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for Sri Lanka and it started with them losing two wickets in the 1st over of the game, with Kusal Mendis and Charith Asalanka dismissed by left-armer Fazalhaq Farooqi off consecutive deliveries.
Pathum Nissanka then got a raw deal from third umpire, Jayaraman Madanagopal, who deemed him out, caught behind, despite ultra-edge showing no spike when the on-field decision was reviewed by the batter. The Sri Lankan camp was outraged, but nevertheless, the decision stood as they slumped to 5/3 inside 2 overs.
Danushka Gunathilake, pushed down to No.4 in this game, and Bhanuka Rajapaksa resurrected the Lankan innings to some extent, putting on 44 runs in 5.2 overs for the 4th wicket. Both looked in good touch, striking the ball well on both sides of the wicket.
However, after a couple of overs of not getting too much strike, Gunathilake tried a reverse sweep, only to find the man at the deep square boundary, giving Afghanistan exactly the opening they needed.
At this point, Rashid Khan, who had been the subject of most pre-match discussions, had not even come into bowl, but Sri Lanka were already struggling on 49/4 in the 8th over.
He ended up not picking up a single wicket, but it didn’t matter as Farooqi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammed Nabi took care of things, with the Sri Lankan batters too helping their cause on a few occasions.
The run-outs of Rajapaksa and Maheesh Theekshana off consecutive deliveries summed up Sri Lanka’s panic with the bat as they were bowled out for 105. Chamika Karunaratne did the best he could given the situation, pulling the team past the 100-run mark after they were reduced to 75/9.
With absolutely no scoreboard pressure and an inexperienced bowling attack, Sri Lanka had little chance of pulling off a win. The Afghan openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Hazratullah Zazai made sure of it, attacking from the word go, cleaving off 83 runs off just 6.1 overs before the former was dismissed.
It was a batting performance worthy of the highest praise as the pair found the boundary with ease, taking runs off every bowler Sri Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka threw at them. In the end, they got to the target with 9.5 overs still remaining, handing Sri Lanka their 2nd heaviest defeat in terms of balls remaining in T20Is.
The heavy loss has done irreparable damage to Sri Lanka’s Net Run-Rate and now their only realistic chance of making it through to the Super 4s is to hope that Bangladesh lose to both Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
Bangladesh will play Afghanistan on the 30th of August before facing off against Sri Lanka on the 1st of September.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pathum Nissanka | c Rahmanullah Gurbaz b Naveen ul Haq | 3 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 42.86 |
| Kusal Mendis | lbw b Fazal Haq Farooqi | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Charith Asalanka | lbw b Fazal Haq Farooqi | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Danushka Gunathilaka | c Karim Janat b Mujeeb ur Rahman | 17 | 17 | 3 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Bhanuka Rajapaksa | run out (Mohammad Nabi) | 38 | 29 | 5 | 1 | 131.03 |
| Wanidu Hasaranga | c Mohammad Nabi b Mujeeb ur Rahman | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 25.00 |
| Dasun Shanaka | c Rahmanullah Gurbaz b Mohammad Nabi | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Chamika Karunaratne | b Fazal Haq Farooqi | 31 | 38 | 3 | 1 | 81.58 |
| Maheesh Theekshana | run out (Rahmanullah Gurbaz) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Matheesha Pathirana | c Najibullah Zadran b Mohammad Nabi | 5 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 41.67 |
| Dilshan Madushanka | not out | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Extras | 6 (b 0 , lb 1 , nb 1, w 4, pen 0) |
| Total | 105/10 (19.4 Overs, RR: 5.34) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fazal Haq Farooqi | 3.4 | 1 | 11 | 3 | 3.24 | |
| Naveen ul Haq | 3 | 0 | 23 | 1 | 7.67 | |
| Mujeeb ur Rahman | 4 | 0 | 24 | 2 | 6.00 | |
| Azmatullah Omarzai | 1 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 20.00 | |
| Mohammad Nabi | 4 | 0 | 14 | 2 | 3.50 | |
| Rashid Khan | 4 | 0 | 12 | 0 | 3.00 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hazratullah Zazai | not out | 37 | 28 | 5 | 1 | 132.14 |
| Rahmanullah Gurbaz | b Wanidu Hasaranga | 40 | 18 | 3 | 4 | 222.22 |
| Ibrahim Zadran | run out (Maheesh Theekshana) | 15 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 115.38 |
| Najibullah Zadran | not out | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Extras | 12 (b 0 , lb 5 , nb 0, w 7, pen 0) |
| Total | 106/2 (10.1 Overs, RR: 10.43) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dilshan Madushanka | 1 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10.00 | |
| Maheesh Theekshana | 4 | 0 | 35 | 0 | 8.75 | |
| Matheesha Pathirana | 1 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 16.00 | |
| Wanidu Hasaranga | 3 | 0 | 19 | 1 | 6.33 | |
| Chamika Karunaratne | 1 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 20.00 | |
| Charith Asalanka | 0.1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 10.00 | |
