Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga celebrates bowling out Afghanistan’s Hamid Hassan in Cardiff on Tuesday (Reuters Photo)Sri Lanka beat Afghanistan by 34 runs at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Tuesday in a match that had been reduced to 41-overs per side because of a rain interruption. With this, Sri Lanka have bounced back from their 10-wicket loss to New Zealand to register their first points of the competition.
Sri Lanka beat Afghanistan by 34 runs!
Afghanistan 152 all out (32.4 ov) Najibullah 43, Hazratullah 30, Pradeep 4/31, Malinga 3/39 vs SL 201. #LionsRoar #CWC19 #AFGvSL pic.twitter.com/R353rLDxju— Sri Lanka Cricket 🇱🇰 (@OfficialSLC) 4 June 2019
Toss: Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib won the toss and invited Sri Lanka to bat first.
First Innings: Sri Lanka, who batted first, were bowled out for 201 by Afghanistan after rain forced the play to be curtailed to 41 overs per side at Cardiff. The target for Afghanistan, however, was revised to 187 applying the DLS method. Kusal Perera top-scored for Sri Lanka making 78 while Mohammad Nabi emerged as the star bowler for Afghanistan finishing with 4/30 in nine overs.
Second Innings: Chasing 187, Afghanistan lost too many wickets at regular intervals for them to ever be in the driving seat in the match. Hazratullah Zazai (30) looked good at the top of the order while there was another rearguard effort from Najibullah Zadran (43). Nuwan Pradeep was the wrecker-in-chief for Sri Lanka, his career-best ODI figures of 4/31 rocking the Afghan middle order. Lasith Malinga bowled two perfect yorkers to claim the last two wickets of the match.
Gamechanger: While Mohammad Nabi was the wrecker-in-chief for Afghanistan, taking four wickets, Nuwan Pradeep’s spell with the new ball was what turned the match in Sri Lanka’s favour. Pradeep also accounted for four wickets, also recording his career-best ODI figures of 4/31.
For his match-winning spell of 4/31, Nuwan Pradeep has been adjudged the Player of the Match! #LionsRoar pic.twitter.com/02riTqr7KZ
— Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) 4 June 2019
Captain Speak:
Dimuth Karunaratne: We had a good start after a long time but suddenly, we lost a couple of wickets and were on the back foot. That’s the negative part but otherwise, the bowling and fielding was really good. After losing the first game, it’s not easy to keep your mind positive. We have the experience in these conditions and that helped. Only thing we need to work on is to improve our batting in the middle overs. Wickets were the key, if the openers get going, then 187 isn’t easy to defend. Their openers went hard but we knew that it was a matter of a couple of wickets and that pushed them on the back foot.
Gulbadin Naib: Start of the day, we didn’t bowl in good areas and lost momentum from there. They got to 100 in no time. At one point, I thought they would get to 300 but Nabi bowled really well. Wicket wasn’t easy for the batters, so I was telling the bowlers to hit the right spots, hit the deck. In the middle overs, Dawlat and Hamid found their lines. Credit goes to them and the other bowlers. Target wasn’t that tough, especially considering how we have been preparing recently as a chasing side. We need improvement in the batting department, need to learn to stitch small partnerships, especially against such quality bowling. At the start of the day, it was cloudy and I expected it to be the same throughout. We could have batted better, played straighter and watched the ball better.
Brief Scores: Sri Lanka 201 all out (36.5 overs) | Afghanistan 152 all out (32.4 overs)
