Afghanistan won by 91 runs
PLAYER OF THE MATCH : Rahmat Shah
Batter
Bowler
Just the ease with which Afghanistan rolled Sri Lanka over today, the maturity of their batting, the squeeze of their bowling, it's really staggering. But there are better teams ahead, tougher challenges. How far can they go? We'll have eyes on them. For now, this is Sagar Chawla signing off on behalf of Varun Dixit, Abhinand Raghavendran, Raju Peethala, Hariprasad Sadanandan and our scorer Sulthan. Good night!
Rahmat Shah, MoM: Wicket was very good to bat. Captain and coach gave me the plan to play straight. This match was very important for us. Very happy to be Man of the Match.
Asghar Afghan, Afghanistan captain: Very important game because Sri Lanka lost their first game. Credit to our batsmen, our openers, they played very well. Every batsman executed plans. Yesterday we spoke about partnerships. Very important thing for us. Credit to our fielders who fielded very well. We want to win, show our abilities and talent. When you want to play cricket just for winning, shows positive intent. We'll see (about winning the Asia Cup). If we give good target on board, our spinners are bowling well. Nowadays our spinners are famous around the world. Want to thank the crowd.
Angelo Mathews, Sri Lanka captain: It was a shocking performance by the whole team. Even in the first game, we could not breach 150 but congratulations to Afghanistan. They outplayed us in all the three departments. The whole batting line-up let us down in both the matches. Chasing 250, bowlers did their part in the first game as well as in this game. We were off to a bad start while batting but we repaired a little bit for the second wicket. We once again lost our way in the middle overs and we didn't have answers. I thought the bowlers did well, in fielding we were better than the last game. It was just the batting unit to be blamed. It is shocking. We played better cricket against South Africa towards the latter part of the series. It is very disappointing to see how the boys went about things, in the first game as well as in the this game. We repeated the mistakes, we just couldn't handle pressure and we were no where near our good performance. Handling pressures was crucial, failing to cross 150 in both the matches (sic) is very shocking and disappointing.
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- Seventh successive loss in UAE for SL in ODIs
- Biggest losses for SL in Asia Cup (by runs):
137 vs Ban, Dubai, 2018
91 vs Afg, Abu Dhabi, 2018 *
81 vs Pak, Colombo PSS, 1986
81 vs Ind, Dambulla, 2010
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22:47 Local Time, 18:47 GMT, 00:17 IST: Afghanistan have another scalp in their ever-growing kitty. They've beaten Sri Lanka for the first time in ODI cricket, and with it, they go through to the Super Fours along with Bangladesh while Sri Lanka go home. Can this really be called an upset? Especially after following their staggering growth over the last couple of years. And especially against this Sri Lankan team which looks so defeated, what with the dropped catches and the run-outs. I'm not so sure. There were only three successful run-chases of 250-plus at Abu Dhabi before today (out of 19), and Sri Lanka never looked like being the fourth. They lost a wicket second ball, they threw away budding partnerships to atrocious run-outs, and they never looked comfortable against spin. Their ODI form has really gone down the drain in the last couple of years and this tournament just encapsulates their miseries.
Rashid Khan to Malinga, out Lbw!! That's it, Sri Lanka are knocked out of the Asia Cup. Malinga attempts to sweep this googly but is trapped on the shin right in front of off. Would've crashed into middle. Malinga lbw b Rashid Khan 1(7)
Rashid Khan to Malinga, THATS OUT!! Lbw!!
Rashid Khan to Chameera, 1 run, pushed through on a length on off, defended wide of short cover
END OF OVER 41
1 Runs
SL: 157 - 9
0 W 0 0 0 1
Dushmantha Chameera
1 (4)
Lasith Malinga
1 (6)
Naib
8-0-29-2
Naib to Chameera, 1 run, length ball outside off, pats it behind backward point for one
Naib to Chameera, no run, third short ball in a row, Chameera has nothing to do with it
Naib to Chameera, no run, slower bouncer down leg, umpire lets it go
Naib to Chameera, no run, banged in short, Chameera ducks underneath
Dushmantha Chameera, right handed bat, comes to the crease
Naib to Perera, out Bowled!! Big smile on Naib's face as he celebrates with an extravagant strut. Why not. He has completely fooled Perera with this slower ball to flatten middle stump. Brought the pace right down to 94kph, it dips under Perera's slog from back of a length. It's all Afghanistan. Perera b Naib 28(36) [4s-2]
Naib to Perera, THATS OUT!! Bowled!!
Naib to Perera, no run, full ball wide of off, Perera left it thinking it was a wide but it ended up well inside the marker