Hambantota: Ibrahim Zadran missed his century by just two runs but his brilliant innings helped Afghanistan beat Sri Lanka by six wickets in the first ODI here on Friday. With this victory, Afghanistan has also taken a 1-0 lead in the 3-match series. Batting first, Sri Lanka scored 268 runs. Afghanistan achieved the feat with 19 balls to spare, losing four wickets. The team got off to a poor start and Dimuth Karunaratne fell to Fazalhaq Farooqui, scoring just 4 runs. Kusal Mendis 11 and Angelo Mathews returned to the pavilion after scoring 12 runs. Nissanka (38) was dismissed as the fourth wicket on the score of 84. After this Charit Aslanka and Dhananjay D’Silva took over the innings. Charit Aslanka shared a 99-run partnership with Dhananjay de Silva (51) for the fifth wicket. Aslanka missed out on a century and was run out after playing an innings of 91 runs. Captain Shanaka scored 17 and Dushan Hemantha scored 22 runs. The Sri Lankan team got all out after scoring 268 runs on the last ball of the innings.
Sri Lankan bowlers struggled
Afghanistan got its first blow in the form of Rahmanullah Gurbaz on 25 itself. But after this opener Ibrahim Zadran took over the innings. He got good support from Rehmat Shah. Zadran scored 98 runs with the help of 11 fours and two sixes. Meanwhile, he shared a 146-run partnership for the second wicket with Rahmat Shah (55). After the dismissal of these two, captain Hasmatullah Shahidi contributed 38 and Mohammad Nabi contributed 27 not out. Mathisha Pathirana, who bowled amazingly in IPL, was thrashed fiercely. He spent 66 runs in 8.5 overs. This was his debut match only. He spent the most economy runs in the match.
CSK vs GT Final Highlights: Ravindra Jadeja hit the winning four on the last ball, victory snatched from Gujarat’s jaws, Dhoni’s title punchIPL Final Last Over: Fans’ breath was stuck, Dhoni’s eyes got moist on Ravindra Jadeja’s winning shot, see the thrill of the last overGT vs CSK: Gujarat Titans’ trump card in the final, Sai Sudarshan thrashed CSK bowlers