For the second game running Afghanistan showcased exemplary calm in the chase, whittling down a sub-par target of 242 with ice-cold composure. A trio of fifties from Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi and Azmatullah Omarzai led the way, as Afghanistan leapfrogged Sri Lanka into fifth place on the points table with six points now on the board.
Sri Lanka meanwhile are virtually out of the running for a semi-final berth, needing to essentially win all of their next three games – against India, Bangladesh and New Zealand – to stand any chance.
For Afghanistan this was a win set up by their bowlers, who had stifled Sri Lanka’s batters on a deck that was for all intents and purposes tailor-made for batting, before their batters ran down the target with minimal fuss.
Fazalhaq Farooqi was the pick of the bunch ending with figures of 4 for 34, but the most intriguing quirk of this game was that despite being afforded a true surface with a lack of lateral movement and minimal turn, both sides rarely scored at more than five an over.
Their reasons however differed. While Sri Lanka could be criticised for a criminal lack of intent, Afghanistan were simply following the breakdown devised for them by head coach Jonathan Trott. Several times over the course of the innings the broadcast camera would pan over his giant whiteboard with 10-over markers clearly laid out – “50 after 10”, “100 after 20”, etc. But despite it being offered up in as easy-to-digest a manner as possible, such was the efficiency with which Afghanistan went about their work, Sri Lanka were powerless to do anything about it.
Sure Dilshan Madushanka tailed one in on Rahmanullah Gurbaz off just the fourth ball of the chase to dislodge middle stump, but Afghanistan had their playbook and they followed it to a tee. Even when the wickets did fall, Afghanistan were quick to snuff out any momentum Sri Lanka might have been looking to derive.
Partnerships of 73, 58 and 111 – between Ibrahim Zadran and Shah, Shah and Shahidi, and then Shahidi and Omarzai – formed the spine of their chase. Throughout that effort, boundaries were never sought after but only accepted when offered, as they were content to wait for loose balls, rarely willing – or needing – to take a risk.
Sri Lanka for their part began to look more and more broken as the innings wore on, running out of ideas and steam on a surface that offered them nothing and against a team that were equally unforgiving.
(Fazalhaq Farooqi finished with a four-wicket haul•Associated Press)
But the tone for this game had been set from the very beginning, as having been asked to bat first – a decision Kusal Mendis said he would have taken even had he won the toss – Sri Lanka would proceed with an uncertainty conspicuously absent in their first five matches.
Perhaps this was borne by this being Sri Lanka’s first real game of the tournament where a chance of a semi-final spot – however unlikely – was tangibly within grasp. Inhibitions had been shed in an improbable chase against South Africa, and that aggressive intent had cascaded through to their next game against Pakistan. Then against Australia, the confidence continued to flow before an unprecedented collapse stopped them dead.
Maybe it was this that pushed Sri Lanka into a more conservative approach, but evidence of any shift didn’t prove forthcoming in games against Netherlands and England, where their intent, or lack thereof, wasn’t scrutinised to any great degree with a pair of middling chases calling more for caution than aggression.
Against Afghanistan though, on a surface which had been described as a “batter’s paradise” during the pitch report, the inclusion of Dimuth Karunaratne betrayed the fear that had been driving Sri Lanka’s thinking.
(Dhananjaya de Silva was mostly clueless against Rashid Khan•ICC via Getty Images)
Yes, Kusal Perera hadn’t made an impact aside from his 78 against Australia, but a surface such as this might have proved precisely the panacea for his batting troubles. Instead Sri Lanka were left frustrated as his replacement Karunaratne would play and miss a handful of shortish, wide deliveries on either side of the wicket – rare loose balls in otherwise tight opening spells from Fazalhaq Farooqi and Mujeeb Ur Rahman. Sri Lanka would end up striking just four boundaries in the first 10 overs.
That powerplay would also see Sri Lanka end on 41 for 1, their lowest score after 10 overs in the entirety of the tournament. This pronounced lack of ambition would afflict them throughout an innings that only sporadically scratched the five an over mark, let alone the sixes and sevens that have been more prevalent across this tournament.
The deference showed to the Afghanistan bowlers through the middle overs was incongruous to say the least when compared to how Sri Lanka had approached those first two games against South Africa and Pakistan.
What this meant was that when the quality deliveries that Afghanistan’s bowlers are capable of inevitably arrived, Sri Lanka’s batters would fall having failed to effectively capitalise on the opportunities afforded elsewhere. Karunaratne would be the first to go, trapped lbw by one darting in from Farooqi, the on-field not out call overturned on review. A 62-run stand between Nissanka and Mendis would follow, before Omarzai would jag one in from a back of a length outside off and coax Nissanka to feather an edge through to Gurbaz behind the stumps – thus ending his streak of fifty-plus scores at four. Gurbaz was deputising for Ikram Alikhil, who was off the field receiving treatment after having dislocated a finger on his right hand while keeping.
Kusal Mendis was next to fall while going for his favoured slog sweep for a fourth time in four games. He would have been disappointed to find the man stationed for just such a stroke, but what was more jarring for onlookers might have been the reticent version of Mendis that had knocked around 49 deliveries prior to that for a modest 39; despite the lack of demons in the wicket, much like the rest of his team-mates, Mendis was shackled by a demure approach in an innings that saw just the three boundaries.
Mendis’ dismissal, which followed a 50-run stand with Sadeera Samarawickrama, would prove the catalyst for a mini collapse that would see Sri Lanka tumble from 134 for 2 to 185 for 7.
Samarawickrama, who had looked his usual industrious self in his 40-ball 36, was caught in the crease by a quicker one from Mujeeb that tailed in. Dhananjaya de Silva, who had put on 28 with Charith Asalanka, was then worked over beautifully by a Rashid googly through the gate, one that had been setup over the course of a nagging over in what was Rashid’s 100th ODI. Asalanka would miscue a pull to mid-off shortly after off Farooqi, while a chaotic and unnecessary run-out – Angelo Mathews calling for a run that would have kept him off strike for the start of the next over – would send Dushmantha Chameera packing.
Only a rearguard stand of 45 from 42 between Mathews and Maheesh Theekshana, where the latter showed off his batting chops with some expansive stroke-play through the offside, took Sri Lanka to a total of any respectability. But on a true surface, and against a commanding Afghanistan side, it was never going to be enough.
