Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan Match Summary:
The first game of Asia Cup 2022, held between Sri Lanka and Afghanistan had its own twists and turns. The hosts of the event Sri Lanka, once again failed to perform their best in the T20 format and lost against the fair newbies but T20 specialists Afghanistan by a huge margin 8 wickets (with 59 balls to spare). Here in this article, we talk about Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan Match Summary in detail.
Sri Lanka batting first scored a total of 105 runs and oh boy, that was a struggle. To reach a 100+ from 65 for 9, Sri Lanka’s Karunratne did a quite good job but the damage was already done it was too late and hard to do any repair work.
Chasing a fairly low total 106, Afghanistan looked in hurry to finish the game fast. Even though they were playing fast, they did not make any mistakes and showed the world today they are ready to compete at a bigger level and should be considered a formidable contender.
Afghanistan gave a comprehensive performance and truly threw down the gauntlet. To ignore them is to invite disaster. What a bold claim. Although Sri Lanka would be upset that they collapsed for only 105, they knew it would be difficult after going 5 for 3 in the opening two overs. The fact that Rashid Khan did not take any wickets despite having an efficient spell would most likely not impress Afghanistan.
You can’t really blame Sri Lanka’s bowlers, though. There wasn’t much pressure on the scoreboard, and under the lights, powerplays can be devastating for a bowling team when the batters come out unconcerned. Gurbaz dazzled with his 18-ball 40, and Zazai remained unblemished until the very end on 37. Give credit to The Farooqi as well, who once had a hat-trick and took a three-for.
It is up to Sri Lanka to prepare for their upcoming match. The first thing is that they must defeat Bangladesh, but before that, they must pray that Bangladesh loses against Afghanistan. If Bangladesh wins the match before Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka will need to pull off a daring and significant victory to have any chance of progressing out of the group given the current net run rate.
PLAYER OF THE MATCH: Fazalhaq Farooqi, Afghanistan (3 for 11)
