Sri lanka won the series 3-0 against afghanisthan

2024.02.14

Sri Lanka won the third ODI against Afghanistan by 7 wickets today (14) to take the series 3-0.

Afghan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss and chose to bat first in the match, which began this afternoon at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.

Both sides made two changes for the match: Sri Lanka’s talented spinners Vanindu Hasaranga and Mahish Thiekshana were rested, while Dunit Vellalage and Akila Dhananjaya were put in.

In addition, Gulbadin Naib and Noor Ahmad from Afghanistan were rested, while Sharafuddin Ashraf and Fareed Ahmad were called up.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz, the opening batsman for Afghanistan, began a good innings today after failing to score in the first two matches, but Ibrahim Zadran was unable to hold the wicket for too long.

Thank you to Avishka Fernando for her great fielding, which kept Zadran’s innings at 13 runs. Rahmat Shah, who came on to join Gurbaz at the wicket after that, however, put up 57 runs for the innings’ second wicket.

However, soon after Akila Dhananjaya joined the field, a ball struck straight to the wicket, restricting Gurbaz’s innings to 48 runs. Ever since, the Afghan batsmen have been deprived of an opportunity to establish a consistent scoring connection with the Sri Lankan spinners.

Asita Fernando removed Azmatullah Omarzai, who scored 54 runs, and Dunit Vellalage removed Rahmat Shah, who scored 65 runs.

When the Afghan innings’ 39th over began, they had managed to amass 220 runs at the cost of just 4 wickets. However, the Afghan innings began to unravel very rapidly when Dunith’s delivery dismissed Ikram Alikhil.

With 3 wickets from Pramod Madushan, Sri Lanka was able to finish Afghanistan’s innings in 2 balls of 48 overs. Asita Fernando, Dunit Vellalage, and Akila Dhananjaya also succeeded in breaking through with two wickets.

As Sri Lanka’s regular opening batsmen combo, Pathum Nissanka and Avishka Fernando, took the field to pursue the goal set by Afghanistan, they both relived the first one-day encounter and returned to a fantastic century partnership.

In this, Sri Lanka scored 100 runs in 83 balls, while Avishka reached his half century in just 24 balls.

After scoring 173 runs in 23 overs together, Avishka and Pathum were dismissed. This significant partnership came to an end.

Avishka Fernando faced just 66 balls in this innings and, regrettably, lost out on his second century in this competition. He was out for 91 runs. And he scored ten fours and five exquisite sixes in exchange.

Despite Avishka’s unlucky failure to reach the century, Pathum Nissanka scored a century for the second time in this competition, needing just 89 balls to do so.

After Avishka was out of the game, Kusal Mendis took the field and quickly amassed 40 runs off of just 29 balls. He scored four sixes in the process, and Pathum and Kusal combined to put on 78 runs in 54 balls to take the second wicket.

Mendis was dismissed by Mohammad Nabi at 251 in the innings, and Pathum Nissanka’s innings was ended by Qais Ahmad with 118 runs.

Over the course of this 101-ball Pathu innings, he amassed 16 fours and 2 sixes.

Pathum became the player for Sri Lanka who reached the milestone in the fewest innings (52) after he also succeeded in reaching the 2000 ODI runs mark during his innings.

At 251 runs in the innings, Mohammad Nabi was able to remove Mendis from the game, while Qais Ahmad ended Pathum Nissanka’s innings with 118 runs.

For this Pathu innings, which was scored in 101 balls, he amassed 16 fours and 2 sixes.

In addition, Pathum became the player for Sri Lanka who reached the 2000 ODI run milestone in the fewest innings (52) by scoring 2000 runs throughout his innings.

@charith