Sri Lanka 308 for 6 (Asalanka 97*, Mendis 61, Umarzai 3-56) beat Afghanistan 153 (Rahmat 63, Ibrahim 54, Hasaranga 4-27) by 155 runs.
Sri Lanka’s middle order, led by Charith Asalanka, scored over 300 for the second consecutive time, helping them seal a 155-run win in the second ODI in Pallekele. Afghanistan chased their target and lost the three-match series with one match to spare.
Chasing 309, Afghanistan had prepared themselves well for the late attack, especially with Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmat Shah putting on a 97-run partnership for the second wicket. But once Asitha Fernando trapped Ibrahim leg, the Afghani innings went into freefall. They lost their next eight wickets for just 25 runs and Sri Lanka ended the innings inside 34 overs.
Wanindu Hasaranga took 4 wickets for 27 runs, while Asitha and Dilshan Madushanka, playing their first ODI in more than a year, took two wickets each. Pramod Madushan also finished with one.
Afghanistan have shown in the past that their tried and tested method for chasing big targets is to take the game deep and the plan was clear from the start. Neither Rahmanullah Gurbaz nor Ibrahim took up the responsibility of bowling early on – a large part of which was due to the tight lines and lengths of the Lankan seamers. Asitha found enough seam to catch Gurbaz’s delivery for 8 runs off 20.
Ibrahim and Rahmat then provided the only real partnership of the innings, but they too struggled to maintain the required pace. Once Ibrahim’s wicket fell in the 27th over, the required rate went above 7.5 per over – still quite achievable. However, Hasaranga struck twice within an over. He trapped Rahmat LBW with a googly and then bowled Hashmatullah Shahidi across the gate after failing to reach the leg-break pitch. Then the wheels started coming off.
Azmatullah Umarzai, who had scored a century in the opening game, hit a fullshed from Madushan through his pads onto the stumps. After this Hasaranga took his second double wicket of the game. The first to go was Mohammed Nabi, Friday’s second centurion, who missed the forward defense of a top spinner, before Ikram Alikhil was run out after some excellent work at backward square leg.
After this, Madushanka bowled the third double-wicket over of the innings, in which Qais Ahmed was caught at deep square leg and then Noor Ahmed was out LBW on the first ball. Hasaranga then wrapped up the innings by trapping Gulbadin Naib LBW as Afghanistan lost their last eight wickets in the space of five overs.
Sri Lanka also lost a pair of wickets in their innings, but consolidated and rebuilt significantly after each of those setbacks. This meant that four of their batsmen scored half-centuries and took them to 308 for 6 when elected to bat first. Asalanka bowled at a slow pace and played an unbeaten inning of 97 runs in 74 balls. It was his partnership of 50 off 32 with Hasaranga that took Sri Lanka’s total past 300 – a good recovery over after Afghanistan had the middle order out.
Along with Asalanka, Kusal Mendis, Sadira Samarawickrama and Zenith Liyanage all scored half-centuries. A pair of century partnerships – the first between Mendis and Samarawickrama and the second between Liyanage and Asalanka – propelled the innings, before the Asalanka-Hasaranga combination helped Sri Lanka score 96 runs in the last ten overs.
Among the Afghan bowlers, Omarzai took 3 wickets for 56 runs, but missed three catches off the bowling of Fazalhaq Farooqui. Along with Farooqui, Noor Ahmed and Qais Ahmed got one wicket each.
After Sri Lanka elected to bat, Nissanka looked in good form and hit three fours in his innings of 18 runs from 17 balls. But his attack was cut short when he missed a full and straight ball from Umarzai and was out LBW. Out-of-form Avishka Fernando fell a few overs later, parrying a back-of-a-length ball straight to point – reminiscent of his three dismissals in the recent series against Zimbabwe. This brought together Mendis and Samarawickrama, who rebuilt the boundaries, serving only as an opportunity to ease the growing pressure. Mendis also got an early reprieve, with Gulbadin Naib giving an easy chance at short midwicket.
But just as they looked to increase the score, Samarawickrama fired a ball towards mid-off positioned on the edge of the circle. Mendis soon pulled a run straight to deep square leg in the very next over. Asalanka and Liyanage were rebuilt before changing gear. The latter brought up his half-century by hitting a sky-high six down the ground, but fell a ball later, caught at long-on while trying to play a big innings once again.
Afghanistan did not take much advantage in the death overs and had both Asalanka and Hasaranga out. This meant that Asalanka was there to ensure that Sri Lanka had a competitive total to defend, something which they did with ease in the end.