AFG vs SL / Afghanistan's third win in the World Cup - defeated Sri Lanka by 7 wickets

AFG vs SL: Afghanistan has achieved its third win in the World Cup 2023. The team defeated 1996 world champion Sri Lanka by 7 wickets on Monday. Afghanistan has defeated 3 former champion teams so far this season. Earlier the team had also defeated Pakistan and England. Now Afghanistan has 6 points from 6 matches and the team remains in the race for the semi-finals. On the other hand, Sri Lankan team is almost out of the race for top-4 after this defeat. He has only 4 points in 6 matches.

Afghanistan won the toss and chose to bowl first at Pune ground. Batting first, the team was all out after scoring 241 runs in 49.3 overs. In reply, Afghanistan won by losing 3 wickets in 45.2 overs.

From Afghanistan, Rahmat Shah (62 runs), captain Hashmatullah Shahidi (58 runs), Azmatullah Omarzai (73) and opener Ibrahim Zadran (39 runs) played important innings. Before him, Fazalhaq Farooqui had taken 4 wickets and Mujeeb ur Rehman had taken 2 wickets.

Points Table: Afghans came at number 5, Sri Lanka reached sixth

After this victory, Afghanistan team has come at 5th position in the points table of World Cup 2023. The team has 6 points in its account after 6 matches with 3 wins and 3 losses, while the Sri Lankan team has slipped to sixth position after its fourth defeat. The team has 4 points after 6 matches. These include 2 wins and 4 losses.

Rehmat, Ajmat and Hashmat scored fifty

After the fall of wicket in the first over, Ibrahim Zadran made a partnership of 73 runs with Rahmat Shah. Zadran was out after scoring 39 runs, even after that Rahmat continued to hold on. He completed his fifty but was also out after scoring 62 runs. After him, Hashmatullah Shahidi and Azmatullah Omarzai both completed fifties and took the team closer to victory.

Afghanistan's fifty in Powerplay-1

The Afghanistan team, which came to chase the target of 242 runs, had a bad start. The team lost the wicket of Rahmanullah Gurbaz in the very first over. Gurbaz could not even open an account. Rahmat Shah, who came after Gurbaz, led the innings with Ibrahim Zadran. Both of them made a fifty partnership and did not allow any wicket of the team to fall in 10 overs. After 10 overs the score of Afghan team was 50/1.

Sri Lanka did not score a single fifty

On Monday, on the Pune ground, opener Pathum Nissanka scored the highest score of 46 runs for Sri Lanka, while captain Kusal Mendis scored an inning of 39 runs. Sadira Samarawickrama scored 36 runs. Fazalhaq Farooqui took 4 wickets for Afghanistan. Mujeeb ur Rahman got 2 wickets.

Afghanistan took 3 wickets in the middle overs, scored 103 runs.

After a great start in the powerplay, the Afghan bowlers bowled brilliantly in the middle overs. Between 11th and 30th over, Afghan bowlers took 3 wickets and allowed Sri Lanka to score only 103 runs.

No batsman could survive after Nissanka's inning of 46 runs. All the batsmen were out with scores less than 40, although Kusal Mendis tried to handle the innings. The captain first made a partnership of 62 runs with Nissanka and then added 50 runs with Samarawickrama.

For Afghanistan, pacer Azmatullah Omarzai took wicket in the 19th over and then spinner Mujeeb ur Rehman strengthened Afghanistan's position by taking wickets in the 28th and 30th over. Sri Lanka showed a defensive approach in batting in the middle overs.

Sri Lankan batsmen looked under pressure in powerplay

Sri Lanka did not have a good start in the powerplay. The team added only 41 runs in the first 10 overs. Meanwhile, 1 wicket was also lost. Sri Lankan batsmen failed to bowl even a single big over in the powerplay. The batsmen batted with a run rate of 4.1. The team added only 18 runs in the first 5 overs.

Afghan bowlers maintained pressure on the batsmen from the very first over. Due to pressure, Dimuth Karunaratne became the victim of Fazalhaq Farooqui on the second ball in the sixth over. Maximum 7 runs came in the tenth over. Here Sri Lanka missed the chance to attack and Afghanistan got a great start.

Ikram Alikhil went out of the field

Afghanistan's wicketkeeper Ikram Alikhil got injured while collecting a throw on the fifth ball of the second over, due to which he had to leave the field. Rahmanullah Gurbaz is keeping in place of Ikram.

Playing eleven of both the teams

Afghanistan: Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omerzai, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rehman, Naveen-ul-Haq and Fazalhaq Farooqui.

Sri Lanka: Kusal Mendis (captain and wicketkeeper), Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Sadira Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjay de Silva, Angelo Mathews, Mahish Teekshana, Kasun Rajitha, Dushmantha Chameera and Dilshan Madushanka.