Sri Lanka 160 (Hasaranga 67, Farooqi 3-25) beat Afghanistan 156 for 9 (Zadran 67*, Pathirana 4-24) by four runs
In front of a sold out crowd in Dambulla, Sri Lanka edged a rollercoaster first T20I against Afghanistan, winning by four runs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Binura Fernando – who had been taken for 38 runs in three overs up until then – came up trump in the end, defending 11 runs in the final over. At the other end was Ibrahim Zadran – having batted through the innings – unbeaten on a 55-ball 67, but having fallen agonisingly short.
But it was Matheesha Pathirana who turned the game in the hosts favour, bowling an exceptional penultimate over where he grabbed two wickets for just three runs, as he ended with figures of 4 for 24.
Sri Lanka had earlier been put into bat, and had been bowled out for 160 – much of which was down to Wanindu Hasaranga‘s outstanding counterpunch innings of 67 off 32. Afghanistan though had picked up a cluster of wickets either side of Hasaranga’s knock to keep Sri Lanka to a par total.
For much of Afghanistan’s chase the game had looked in hand, particularly with Ibrahim at the crease, but Sri Lanka’s bowlers led by Pathirana did well to keep the grab wickets at crucial junctures and nip in at the death.
This article was originally published by Espncricinfo.com. Read the original article here.
