(Poornama Edirisooriya writes)
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| Sri Lanka still in the semi-final race |
Still alive!
Sri Lanka is still alive in T20 World Cup 2022 with the win against Afghanistan. A clinical performance with the bat and ball (still not the best with fielding though) gave us a handsome six wickets win.
de Silva duo, First Wanindu Hasaranga de Silva ( I know you are not used to it), and Dhananjaya de Silva in the second half led the bowling and batting departments in this must-win encounter to keep the hopes of a semi-final spot. With the two points today, Sri Lanka now has 4 points in 4 matches. For the semi-final birth, Sri Lanka must not only win their last super 12 match against England but also other results should go their way since New Zealand, England, and Australia sitting above us with 5 points.
Afghanistan captain won the toss and opted to bat first at Gabba. The openers seemed to justify their captain's choice as they made 42 in the powerplay. Gurbaz got a good start to memorizing those demons of the Asia Cup innings vs Sri Lanka. He played some powerful shots to the straighter boundary before he was bowled by Lahiru Kumara in the first ball after the powerplay. Then Usman Ghani and Ibrahim Zadran tried to rebuild the Afghan inning. Afghanistan was in a good position at the halfway mark of their inning with 68 runs and 9 wickets in hand.
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| 4-0-13-3 without any boundaries from Wanindu |
Sri Lankan bowlers didn't give them boundaries and batters had to run well for their runs. Collectively bowlers bowled well and took wickets at regular intervals to restrict Afghanistan to a below-par score like 144. They took 8 Afghan wickets, Wanindu Hasaranga had the best figures among bowlers as he took 3 wickets for just 13 runs without giving any boundary in his 4 overs. Lahiru Kumara took two valuable wickets from Gurbaz and Ibrahim as well. Sri Lankan bowlers did a really good job at death overs where Afghanistan managed to get only 40 runs in the last 5 overs.
As usual, openers started watchfully but Nissanka fell for a great carrom ball off Mujeeb. The only way to get over the line was by building partnerships. Sri Lankan batters could provide today the same. Mendis broke the free first as he got a couple of boundaries before getting out in Rashid Khan's first over.
Dhananjaya de Silva who batted throughout the inning, pace the inning nicely. It was another show of his lazy elegance in making 66 runs off 42 balls with six boundaries and two fours. He made sure partnerships are made as he made 34 with Mendis, 54 with Asalanka, and 42 with Rajapaksa. Dhananjaya and Rajapaksa tried to reach the target mindful of NRR and DDS finished the game with a stylish extra cover drive.
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| Dhananjaya de Silva's best T20I inning guided the run chase |
Wanindu Hasaranga was adjudged as Man of the Match for his brilliant spell. Sri Lanka will meet England on 05 th Saturday as their last super 12 match. But by Friday (04th), Sri Lanka's fate might be decided if both New Zealand and Australia win their respective matches.
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