Sri Lanka A, captained by Sadeera Samarawickrema, knocked out tournament favourites Afghanistan A out of the Abu Dhabi Tri Series to set up a final against once unlikely looking Ireland A tomorrow having yesterday given the Lankan bench players an opportunity to showcase their talents having already secured their place in the finals.
The equation for Afghanistan was to beat Sri Lanka and qualify for the finals or call it quits.
Afghanistan, with so much talent and skills, lost a vital league game against the Irish in their previous game. The lack of application by their batters cost them a deficit in their net run rate that plunged them to the bottom of the three team points table. Hence, when they took the field at Abu Dhabi yesterday, it was win or depart for the Asian counterparts.
Sri Lanka tried their bench strength. Sadeera Samarawickrema, the captain with Isuru Udara, Dilshan Madushanka, Dushmantha Hemantha, and Sahan Arachige took a well deserved break.
Afghanistan was into bat, but their is no excuse for the top order to have lost wickets in clusters in the given batting conditions.
Did the Afghanistan batters, especially the top 3, throw too much caution to the wind and build a negative mindset and crawl to 63 for 3 wickets in 19.3 overs?
No doubt Sri Lankan bowlers were very disciplined despite a few fielding mishaps, but a healthy 4th wicket partnership of 73 runs between Darwish Rasool and wicket keeper Ikram Alikhil was definitely recovery time for the Afghan team.
But then, Afghanistan faced a big blow when Tharindu Ratnayaka, the ambidextrous spinner, bowled Alikhil for 36 with the score 136, which sparked a cluster of dismissals. Skipper Rasooli, who top scored with 76, was another scalp for Tharidu Ratnayaka with the hosts total on 179 for 7 wickets and looking down the barrel.
Quais Ahmed, always handy with the bat, made 36 for Afghanistan to get to 228 for 8 wickets in 50 overs, but it was ultimately not enough to see the side through, a total far below par, even against a Sri Lankan second string side.
Sri Lanka’s wreckers with the ball were Milan Ratnayaka 2 for 44, Tharindu Ratnayaka 4 for 45 and Wanuja Shan 2 for 33.
Sri Lanka, despite losing Chamindu Wickramasinghe for 18 with the score on 30 , stitched a 110 run partnership between stand-in skipper Nuwindu Fernando 51 and opener Kamil Mishra who top scored with a game clinching 81 whilst Pawan Ratnayaka at the back end 46 not out as Sri Lanka delth Afghanistan the knockout blow in only 39 overs.
Afghanistan captain Rasooli admitted their batting let them down in the series while lamenting that batting first was a disadvantage.
There are no ” IF’S AND BUTS ” in Cricket. The earlier they address their batting problems, I guess these excuses can be avoided.
