Afghanistan crushed Sri Lanka by 7 wickets in match 30 of the ongoing World Cup 2023 at the MCA Stadium in Pune. While chasing 242, Afghanistan achieved the total in just 45.2 overs, kudos to some brilliant batting performances. The Afghans sustained an early blow when Rahmanullah Gurbaz departed for a four-ball duck as he was dismissed by Dilshan Madushanka. Madushanka struck again in the 17th over to get rid of Ibrahim Zadran (39). Hashmatullah Shahidi and Azmatullah Omarzai starred with the bat with both batters scoring their respective half-centuries. Hashmatullah Shahidi remained unbeaten on 58 runs while Azmatullah Omarzai collected 73 runs.
For Sri Lanka, Dilshan Madushanka scalped two wickets while Kasun Rajitha picked up a wicket. Earlier, skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss and decided to bowl first and Afghanistan bowlers were lethal with the bowl as they bundled out Sri Lanka to just 241 runs on what was a good batting surface.
Dimuth Karunaratne made a comeback to the side and opened in place of Kusal Perera but then he failed to make it big as he fell to Fazalhaq Farooqi on the second ball of the sixth over. The Island nation tried to steady their innings with Kusal Mendis and Pathum Nissanka taking the onus but then the latter departed four runs short of his half-century. They added 62 runs off 77 balls for the second wicket until their stand was broken. Pathum Nissanka top scored for the island nation as he made 46 runs as no other batters could decode the Afghan bowlers.
Spinner Mujeeb ur Rahman returned to his spell and scalped the racial wickets of Mendis and the in-form Sadeera Samarawickrama in consecutive overs and left Sri Lanka reeling. Rashid Khan then cleaned up Dhananjaya de Silva.
For Afghanistan, Fazalhaq Farooqi was the star with the ball, picking up four wickets while Mujeeb clinched two wickets. Rashid Khan and Azmatullah picked up a wicket each.
