Melbourne: Sri Lanka knocked Afghanistan Out of the race for T20 semi-finals World The cup, with a six-wicket win in Brisbane on Tuesday, boosts their own chances of making the last four in the tournament.
Spinner Wanindu Hasaranga (3-13) led Sri Lanka’s disciplined bowling as Asia champions restricted Afghanistan to a modest 144-8 in the Group 1 contest at the Gabba.
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Dhananjaya de Silva scored an unbeaten 64 to guide the 2014 champions to victory with nine balls to spare and revived their campaign after consecutive defeats to Australia and New Zealand.
Sri Lanka now have four points from the same number of matches, while Afghanistan are at the bottom with two.
Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi, referring to the washed out matches against New Zealand and Ireland, said, “We haven’t played any matches in the last 10 days, so we didn’t get any momentum in the tournament.”
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“We have one more game and hopefully we will do well.”
Elected to bat, Afghanistan were buried in the powerplay and were 68–1 in the halfway stage of their innings.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (28), Usman Ghani (27) and Ibrahim Zadran (22) could not convert their starts and Hasranga denied them a late flourish.
Hasaranga, the tournament’s most successful bowler with 13 wickets in seven matches, also won his duel with Rashid Khan, whom he bowled for nine.
De Silva left the field with a knee injury just before sealing Sri Lanka’s victory, Rashid claimed 2–31, but Afghanistan did not win the Super 12 stage.
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