Afghanistan Cricket Board files complaint to ACC over major NRR miscalculation in Asia Cup 2023

The match between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka in the ongoing Asia Cup was nothing short of a controversial affair. The Hashmatullah Shahidi-led side stated that their team was unaware of the Net Run Rate (NRR) scenarios.  Notably, Afghanistan lost the match by only two runs and, most importantly, failed to chase 291 runs in 37.1 overs, which knocked them out of the tournament.

Right after the end of the match, head coach Jonathan Trott mentioned the same in the press conference, and that raised quite a few eyebrows. However, the Asian Cricket Council didn’t comment about the same. As things stand, ACB has not taken this lightly and wrote a complaint regarding the major NRR calculation to the governing body. 

Coming to the game, Sri Lanka won the toss and decided to bat first. The openers gave them a perfect start while batting at number three; Kusal Mendis hit 92 runs to help the team post a defendable total on board. Towards the fag end of the innings, Dunith Wellalage and Maheesh Theekshana contributed 33* and 28 runs, respectively, as the Lankan Lions looked sorted.

Even with the ball, the Dusan Shanaka-led side started in a remarkable fashion. They picked up three quick wickets, but Shahidi and Mohammad Nabi saved Afghanistan’s ship sinking ship. The duo built a partnership of 80 runs, which completely changed the complexion of the game. However, after they got out, wickets kept on falling on a regular basis, and despite their incredible effort, they fell short in the end.

Meanwhile, after this, the Afghanistan cricketers will take a break before coming to India for the upcoming ODI World Cup, which is slated to begin on October 5. Ahead of that, they will play a couple of friendly matches against South Africa and Sri Lanka and then take on Bangladesh in their opening match.