Afghanistan fell just a few steps away from qualifying for the next stage of the Asia Cup where they suffered a two-run defeat against Sri Lanka.
In the match played on Tuesday at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, the teams of Sri Lanka and Afghanistan came from Group B where Afghanistan not only had to win this match but also had to improve their run rate.
Sri Lanka won the toss and batted first, setting Afghanistan a target of 292 runs to win. But Afghanistan had to achieve this target not in 50 overs but in 37.1 overs.
Thus, in the beginning, it looked very difficult for Afghanistan to achieve this target even when their first three wickets fell for just 50 runs.
But the Afghan batsmen did not lose heart and thanks to the aggressive and careful batting of Rehmat Shah, captain Heshmatullah Shahidi and Muhammad Nabi, they not only returned to the match at once, but also tied their hopes for going to the next stage of the Asia Cup. .
Rahmat Shah’s 45, Heshmatullah Shahidi’s 59 and Mohammad Nabi’s brilliant 65 off 32 balls left Afghanistan needing 33 off 19 balls to qualify at one point, with Najeebullah Zadran and Rashid Khan at the crease.
In such a situation, Najeebullah scored 23 runs off 15 balls and Rashid Khan scored 27 runs off 16 balls to further reduce the target. But on this occasion, Najeebullah Zadran was caught out trying to hit a high shot.
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This was the moment when Rashid Khan took charge and hit three fours in the 37th over to bring the team’s target to three runs off one ball. In-form Mujeebur Rahman was facing this one ball, whose batting in recent matches was expected to score these three runs to qualify his team.
However, he could not do so and was caught out on the last ball of the 38th over. In such a situation, all Afghanistan’s hopes of qualifying also returned to the pavilion with them.
But Afghanistan could have still won the match as they needed to score just three runs in the next 12 overs and five balls. But they could not do that and lost the match to Sri Lanka by two runs.
Sri Lanka have reached the Super Four stage of the Asia Cup after defeating Afghanistan in this match, while Bangladesh have already qualified from Group B.
Thus, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will now face the two teams of Group A, Pakistan and India.
The first match of the Super Four stage of the Asia Cup will be played between Pakistan and Bangladesh at the Gaddafi Stadium Lahore on September 6, i.e. Wednesday.
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