Afghanistan struggled somewhat in reply to Sri Lanka’s 381 in the first ODI at Pallekele. They did not care in the second match at the same venue. The Afghans were devastated in the blink of an eye. The Lankans took the series with one match in hand with a big win of 155 runs.
Batting earlier, Sri Lanka scored 308 runs for 6 wickets with four half-centuries. Pathum Nisanka, who scored a double century in the first match, lost his wicket for 18 runs that day. Another opener Avishka Fernando (5) departed for the team’s 36 runs.
After that, Sadira Samarawickrama and Kushal Mendis put Sri Lanka in a strong position with a partnership of 103 runs. In two successive overs these two batters returned to the pavilion. Sadira scored 52 runs and Kushal scored 61 runs.
Janith Lienage with Asalanka contributed to Sri Lanka’s big tally with a partnership of over 100 runs. The two added 111 runs together. When Lienage departed after scoring 50 runs, he crossed the team score of 300 with Hasaranga. Asalanka could not score a century despite being at the crease. He scored 97 runs off 74 balls with 9 fours and 2 sixes.
Azmatullah Omarzai took the maximum three wickets for Afghanistan.
Opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz returned to the target in the seventh over. Then the pair of Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmat Shah gave hope to Afghanistan. But Asitha Fernando broke the pair of 97 runs and brought the breakthrough.
128 for 2 Afghanistan’s batting line collapsed like a house of cards. Wanindu Hasaranga contributed to the collapse with four wickets. Afghanistan lost the last 9 wickets by 25 runs.
Rahmat scored an innings best 63 runs. 54 runs came from Ibrahim’s bat. No one else hit double-digit home runs. The third best 10 runs came from the extra sector. Afghans were all out for 153 runs.
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