Rajapaksa and Gunathilaka’s ice-cool hitting wins it for Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka 179 for 6 (Mendis 36, Nissanka 35, Gunathilaka 33, Rajapaksa 31, Mujeeb 2-30, Naveen 2-40) beat Afghanistan 175 for 6 (Gurbaz 84, Ibrahim 40, Madushanka 2-37) by 4 wickets

Maheesh Theekshana conceded just eight runs when given two overs at the death, Hasaranga went for only 23 in his four overs, and left-arm seamer Danushka Madushanka took 2 for 37. Overall, it was the highest-successful T20I chase in Sharjah and, more importantly, gave Sri Lanka two key points on the Super 4s table.

For Afghanistan, it was a first T20I loss after posting a 170-plus total. They will now have to recuperate quickly, otherwise a slide is a realistic possibility with fixtures against India and Pakistan to follow. Rashid Khan went for plenty, no other batter apart from Gurbaz looked fluent, and the 2022 Asia Cup suddenly seems very wide open.

The Gurbaz show
It was an early reprieve for Gurbaz that kickstarted the Afghanistan innings’ lift-off. After hitting his first six of the day in the third over, Gurbaz tried to repeat the same off Theekshana, but ended up hitting it to long-off where Gunathilaka got under the ball. But the umpires stalled the revelry, because the fielder had stepped on the boundary skirting.

Gurbaz’s eight off five balls would soon become 50 in 22 deliveries as he continued aggressively by finding boundaries, preferring the region between long-on and deep midwicket most. With Hazratullah Zazai struggling to a 16-ball 13 – before being bowled by Madushanka – and Ibrahim Zadran, the No. 3, slow off the blocks, it was Gurbaz’s attacking shots that brought up the team fifty in 6.1 overs.

The pitch was two-paced – there was the occasional low bounce – but Gurbaz rallied on to take Afghanistan to 83 for 1 after ten overs. At the halfway mark, ESPNcricinfo’s Forecaster had Afghanistan finishing on 175, their actual final score, but four overs of no boundaries between overs eight and 12 brought Sri Lanka back into the game. However, Gurbaz dragged the momentum back in Afghanistan’s favour by finding sixes off Dasun Shanaka and Chamika Karunaratne in back-to-back overs, and Ibrahim joined in with a few lusty blows of his own down the ground.

The Sri Lankan squeeze
Karunaratne’s 21-run 14th over meant Afghanistan entered the final six overs needing only 68 more to reach 200, and with nine wickets in hand, that was a real possibility. But the 15th from Hasaranga was tidy, and Gurbaz was caught at deep midwicket while trying to take Asitha Fernando on in the 16th. Theekshana’s 17th and 19th overs went for a total of eight runs, and Ibrahim fell early in the 18th over from Madushanka following a 38-ball 40.

Najibullah Zadran came in and did smack 17 in ten balls, but his dismissal, along with the quick wickets of Mohammad Nabi and Rashid in the last two overs, meant Afghanistan could add only 12 off the last 12 balls, only 44 off the last 36 deliveries, and eventually finished short of where they could have been.

Sri Lanka’s openers put on 62
Nissanka struggled early against Fazalhaq Farooqi – their wrecker-in-chief in the previous outing – but Mendis was not afraid to take on Afghanistan’s two big spinners.

Mendis’ region of choice was the square boundary on the leg side off both Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Rashid, as he creamed a slog sweep over deep midwicket off the former in the third over and took the latter for a 17-run first over that included two sixes.

Only once before had Rashid conceded 17 or more runs in his opening over in T20Is, and with Sri Lanka at 57 for no loss after the powerplay, the onus was on the openers to set the base for their hard-hitting middle-order to take the chase forward.

However, Mendis fell for a 19-ball 36 just after the powerplay ended, mistiming a pull off Naveen-ul-Haq to deep midwicket, which brought the spotlight on Nissanka, who was otherwise spending more time at the non-striker’s end. Nissanka looked like he would be the anchor around whom the others would hit out, but he too fell, for 35 in the ninth over, when trying to chase a Mujeeb half-tracker.

The middle order steps up
With both openers out in quick succession and two new Sri Lanka batters at the crease, Afghanistan had their tails up. Gunathilaka and Charith Asalanka were watchful inititally, and that saw the required run-rate creep up to 9.88 after 11 overs. However, once Mohammad Nabi returned, Gunathilaka hit him for a 14-run 12th over and an 11-run 14th over. That ensured the required run-rate stayed under ten even though Shanaka and Asalanka fell trying to look for big hits.

However, Afghanistan’s back broke when new batter Rajapaksa hammered Naveen for 4, 4, 6 in an 18-run 16th over. The first boundary was hit past point, the next one was straighter through deep extra-cover, and the best of the lot – the six – was hammered over the bowler’s head.

Rajapaksa was then dropped off the final ball of a Naveen over, and with the Afghan shoulders drooping in unison as a reaction, it seemed like the match was already in Sri Lanka’s pocket.

Rashid then got into a chat after Gunathilaka struck him for a reverse sweep four, forcing Rajapaksa to intervene and keep matters under control. Even though Rashid won that battle with Gunathilaka’s wicket for a 20-ball 33, the target was just about a run-a-ball away at that stage.

Hasaranga came in and smacked three fours in his first seven balls to eventually finish on an unbeaten nine-ball 16, and even though Rajapaksa fell for a 14-ball 31 trying to look for a glory shot when the target was two runs away, celebrations began among the Sri Lanka fans well before the winning runs were finally hit.