In yet one more victory, Afghanistan on Monday crushed Sri Lanka by seven wickets in a snug run chase within the 30th match of the ICC World Cup 2023 on the Maharashtra Cricket Affiliation Stadium, Pune, India.
Hashmatullah Shahidi’s males recorded back-to-back wins for the primary time within the historical past of the event, as earlier than this 12 months’s mega occasion, that they had just one victory in two World Cups — 2015 and 2019.
Identical to their final victory in opposition to Pakistan, the place they chased down 282 with eight wickets to spare, the Afghans performed with exceptional temperament and did not play rash and sloppy pictures.
Although they met with an early blow as in-form batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz was eliminated by Dilshan Madushanka within the first over, Rahmat Shah and Ibrahim Zardan supplied the much-needed stability to their batting.
Shah was the important thing to Afghanistan’s run chase because the right-handed batter performed an vital knock of 62 runs off 74 balls with seven fours.
After Shah was eliminated by Kasun Rajitha, skipper Shahidi and Azmatullah Omarzi constructed a match-winning partnership of 111 runs and cruised their aspect to an vital win.
Shahidi scored 58 runs whereas Omarzai contributed 72 runs as they helped their aspect chase down the 242-run goal in 45.2 overs.
Batting first, Sri Lankan batters have been troubled by Afghanistan’s bowlers as not one of the single batters, aside from Pathum Nissanka who scored 46 runs, might handle to attain large.
Afghanistani bowlers stored taking wickets at common intervals and have been quickly all out for 241 runs.
Kusal Mendis (39) and Sadeera Samarawickrama (36) have been the highest second and third high scorers for the Islanders.
Fazalhaq Farooqi was the decide of the bowlers for the Afghan because the left-handed pacer prompted every kind of troubles for Kusal Mendis’ males and took 4 wickets for 34 runs in 10 overs.
Afghanistan will now tackle the Netherlands on November three in Lucknow, which might be an vital match for Shahidi’s males as they are going to look to stay alive within the race to the semi-final.
In the meantime, Sri Lanka will play the unbeaten India aspect on November 2 in Mumbai.