Player of the Match
Player of the Match
1779dThe Report by Shamya Dasgupta

Nuwan Pradeep, Lasith Malinga bowl Sri Lanka to scrappy win

In an error-strewn game, Sri Lanka did just about enough right to secure their first points and hand Afghanistan their second successive defeat

Match Centre

Statistics

Best performances - Batsmen

MDKJ Perera
MDKJ Perera
78(81) 8x4 - 0x6
Control %78%
  • Productive Shot
  • cut shot
  • 19 runs
  • 2x4 - 0x6
3 4 9 13 15 1 11 22
Najibullah Zadran
Najibullah Zadran
43(56) 6x4 - 0x6
Control %77%
  • Productive Shot
  • cover drive
  • 18 runs
  • 3x4 - 0x6
0 5 9 3 3 0 0 23

Best performances - Bowlers

Mohammad Nabi
Mohammad Nabi
O9
M0
R30
W4
Eco3.33
RHB
OFFLEG
2W
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF
1W
1W
N Pradeep
N Pradeep
O9
M1
R31
W4
Eco3.44
RHB
OFFLEG
1W
1W
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF
2W

Scorer: @Thilak_Rama | Commentator: Ankur Dhawan

7.30pm Afghanistan go to Taunton from here, which has a reputation for being a high scoring venue. Sri Lanka go to Bristol, where they take on Pakistan. It's time for me to make the trek home as well, so on behalf of Peter Della Penna and Thilak Rama, it's goodbye. Thanks for joining, see you tomorrow.

Dimuth Karunaratne I think we had a good start after a long time and suddenly we lost a couple of wickets and we were on the backfoot. Bowling and fielding was the highlight. Wickets are the key, 187 is not easy to defend, we know their openers go hard, but once we got them they were on the backfoot and we kept getting wickets. Bowlers did a really good job, fielder did good job, but batting through the middle stage needs to improve

Gulbadin Naib Start of the day, the bowler's didn't bowl right areas, they scored too heavily in the first ten overs, but it was good how Nabi bowled but it wasn't a good start. Wicket was not easy for the batsmen and so we'd asked the bowlers to hit the deck hard and they came back well during the middle. We need some improvement in the batting, we need more partnerships.

Thisara Perera We all know because of the conditions, the ball does something when you bowl the right length. Fielding wise, I'm normally a good fielder, happy to take a crucial catch. We have an experienced attack, we thought we could defend the total

7.10pm As darkness descended over Sophia Gardens, there was light in the Sri Lankan camp as they scripted a remarkable comeback with the ball and won their first ever match in seven attempts at their bogey venue, Cardiff.

It hadn't started well as the Afghanistan openers got stuck in early but Nuwan Pradeep, inexplicably left out last match, produced a career best performance that included the scalps of the dangerous looking Zazai and Naib, when the Afghanistan captain and Najibullah Zadran were threatening to take the game away.

And when it mattered, it was over to Lasith Malinga, who rolled back the years with some vintage yorkers towards the end. It wasn't the perfect fielding performance either but when it mattered, Dimuth Karunaratne hit the stumps directly to send Najibullah Zadran back and virtually seal the match then and there.

32.4
W
Malinga to Hamid Hassan, OUT, excellent comeback! malinga fires a yorker on middle, his loyal ally over the years and cleans him up to finish things off

Hamid Hassan b Malinga 6 (12m 5b 0x4 1x6) SR: 120.00

32.3
6
Malinga to Hamid Hassan, SIX, slower ball on off and he has launched this miles up into the sky and clears wide long-on with ease
32.2
0
Malinga to Hamid Hassan, no run,
32.1
1
Malinga to Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 1 run, yorker, tailing in, gets him on the foot but it's sliding down

END OF OVER:
32 | 9 Runs 1 Wkt | AFG: 145/9 (43 runs required from 54 balls, RR: 4.53, RRR: 4.77)

  • Hamid Hassan0 (2b)
  • Isuru Udana6-0-28-1
  • Lasith Malinga6-0-32-2
31.6
W
Udana to Najibullah Zadran, OUT, full on off, drilled to cover, they take off to keep Najibullahon strike but it's the Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne, he hits the stumps directly and finds his man short

Najibullah Zadran run out 43 (92m 56b 6x4 0x6) SR: 76.78

31.5
0
Udana to Najibullah Zadran, no run, slower ball from the back of the hand, he swings early and misses completely, just goes over the middle stump

Afghanistan 2nd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st34Mohammad ShahzadHazratullah Zazai
2nd8Rahmat ShahHazratullah Zazai
3rd2Hashmatullah ShahidiHazratullah Zazai
4th13Mohammad NabiHashmatullah Shahidi
5th0Mohammad NabiGulbadin Naib
6th64Gulbadin NaibNajibullah Zadran
7th2Najibullah ZadranRashid Khan
8th13Dawlat ZadranNajibullah Zadran
9th9Hamid HassanNajibullah Zadran
10th7Hamid HassanMujeeb Ur Rahman