World Cup Match 12 Review: Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan

World Cup Match 12 Review: Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan:

Sri Lanka went in as favourites in this match and though they won the match by 4 wickets, they were made to work for it. Read the review of the match below.

Afghanistan was put into bat first by Sri Lanka after the latter won the toss. Afghanistan scored a total of 232 runs in their 50 overs. Their main scorers were Asghar Stanikzai (54), Samiullah Shenwari (38) and Mirwais Ashraf (28). Lasith Malinga came back into form with 3/41 and Captain Mathews also took 3/41 to stem the flow of runs in the last overs. Afghanistan’s flow of runs was paralysed in the last 15 overs and could only score 63 runs despite 6 wickets in hand.

Sri Lanka could not have begun at a much sorry note. They lost both their openers Lahiru Thirimanne and Tillakaratne Dilshan for ducks on the first balls of the first 2 overs. Kumar Sangakkara (7) and Dimuth Karunaratne (23) followed soon after thanks to some tight bowling by Hamid Hassan who took 3/45. Sri Lanka looked in trouble at 51/4, but Mahela Jayawardene (100) and Angelo Mathews (44) came together to add 126 runs for the 5th wicket. Thisara Perera scored 47 off 26 balls to take Sri Lanka home to victory with 10 balls to spare.

Though Sri Lanka won the match, Afghanistan made them sweat really hard for it. Their batsmen failed to convert a good start into a big final total, but their bowlers made up for them by taking early wickets. They will take a brilliant lesson from this game that they need to convert good starts into a big total.

Mahela Jayawardene got the Man of the match award for his brilliant match winning 100.

Brief Scores:
Afghanistan 232/10 (A Stanikzai 54, S Shenwari 38; L Malinga 3/41) lost to Sri Lanka 236/6 ( M Jayawardene 100, T Perera 47*; H Hassan 3/45) by 4 wickets.