Asia Cup 2022, Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan Highlights: Sri Lanka hunt down Afghanistan with superb all-round effort in slog overs | Cricket News

SHARJAH: The Sri Lankan smashers showed great tactical acumen in another tough chase as they beat Afghanistan with four shots in the Super 4 opening match of the Asian Cup here on Saturday.
It was the great bowling effort at the death that saw Sri Lanka restrict the Afghans to 175 of 6 with just 37 runs to in the last five rounds despite an excellent 84 out of 45 balls by Rahmanullah Gurbanz.
As it happened
In response, Sri Lanka chased the 19.1 round goal with some small but impactful contributions that helped solve the problem for them. This is the highest chase in T20I at Sharjah.

Like the great bow to death, the 15-18 gap yielded 51 runs for the Lankans and that proved to be a game changer.
Kusal Mendis (36 out of 19 balls) starting from where he left the match against Bangladesh the day before when he hit the opponent’s best player Rashid Khandeposit him for two six points in a row when 17 runs pass in Powerplay.
And before that, Mendis has max Mujeeb ur Rahaman.
All three sixs are in the arc between the deep middle ball and the deep square foot.
His opening partner Pathum Nissanka (35 of 28 balls) also provided solid support as 62 balls were added to the opening stands.
However, it was Danuska Gunathilaka (33 shots 20 balls) and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (31 shots 14 balls), who had 32 runs with only 2.3 shots that changed the game.
Their recklessness had a tremendous impact on the final outcome of the game as they hit six points and easily found a gap. Of the 34 balls they played, there were six fours and three sixs.
The Afghan archers, who weren’t always used to handling pressure situations, eventually faltered and Rashid’s poor day (1/39 of 4 innings) at the office came to an end. function.
Put in the batman’s young opener, Rahmanullah Gurbanz gave a superb showcase of his stellar batting as his innings underpinned his 175-to-6 competitive total. Afghanistan.
However, Afghanistan will be a bit of a letdown as the last five games yielded only 37 runs and let go of five long shots straight away with GUrbaz’s dismissal putting some sort of brake on the running line.
Gurbanz, the 20-year-old right-hand man who was a member of the IPL champion team Gujarat Titans, defeated half a dozen six and added 93 in just 10.4 rounds with Ibrahim Zadran (40) to bring Afghanistan to a worthy total. respect. at Sharjah Cricket Ground.
The evening belonged to Gurbanz, who got his share of luck when Danushka Gunathilaka’s foot touched the rope as he went six seconds in a row in the mysterious Mahesh Theekshana spin, then knocked him down six times. firstly.
However, there wasn’t any look back after that even though the player on the right didn’t put much footing on the spinner.
The tagline that wipes out Wanindu Hasaranga over the corner is something to watch, and so are the two hits that knock out Chamika Karunaratne, all at maximum power with minimal hand-eye coordination and foot movement.
There was a pull that knocked goalkeeper Asitha Fernando out of the half-dozen six balls he hit and once he was out, Sri Lanka’s pitchers felt a sense of regret on a ground where the line was tight. The two sides are really short.
Zadran though had a couple of coveted shots and so did Rashid Khan (9) towards the end of the Afghan half to make it close to 180.
While spinners Theekshana (1/29) and Hasaranga (0/23 in 4 passes) only dropped 52 out of eight passes, it was captain Dasun Shanaka (0/22 in 2 passes) and Karunaratne (0/29 in 2 passes), who leaked 51 runs in four passes for the “fifth pitcher’s quota”.