Now Lanka burned in Afghan flame

Lanka was burned by Hanuman in Ramayana, one of the two important epics of Hinduism. This time, Lankan cricket has been burned by Afghan flame. In the 30th game of the World Cup in Pune, Afghanistan have shown a convincing performance to seal a dominating win over Sri Lanka.

The Afghans, who are historically known as the nation of warriors, easily chased down the mediocre target of 242 runs by seven wickets keeping 28 balls in hand at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium on Monday.
In reply to 241, the Asian giant killers faced an early blow losing their inform opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz for a duck in the very first over.

Another opener Ibrahim Zadran (39) then took the Afgans to strong position making a 73-run stand with Rahmat Shah (62) in the second wicket.

Later, skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (58) and Azmatullah Omarzai (73) ensured the superlative win by seven wickets building a 111-run stand between them.

Dilshan Madushanka took two wickets for Sri Lanka while Kasun Rajita got one.

Earlier, Afghanistan bowled Sri Lanka out for 241 runs pushing them to a sudden collapse.

Being asked to bat, Sri Lanka got a good start with the bat of Pathum Nissanka (46) and Kusal Mendis (39) as they made a 62-run stand between them after losing their first wicket on 22.

Nissanka offered his wicket being caught behind when Sri Lanka were on 82 but they were moving forward nicely till the 28th over. At that stage, they lost the third wicket for 134.

Sri Lanka then kept losing wickets at regular intervals which pushed them to a sudden collapse. They went from 134/2 to 241/10 losing the last eight wickets within 107 runs.

Fazalhaq Farooqi was the pick of the Afghan bowlers as took four wickets conceding just 34 runs in 10 overs. Mujeeb Ur Rahman picked up two wickets while each of Azmatullah Omarzai and Rashid Khan got one.

Playing XIs

Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis(wk/c), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Angelo Mathews, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha, Dushmantha Chameera, Dilshan Madushanka.

Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Ikram Alikhil(wk), Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi.