269/4 (46.5)
CR : 5.74
268/10 (50.0)
CR : 5.36
Afghanistan won by 6 wickets 🏆
Player of the Match
Ibrahim Zadran
98(98)
46.4
4
M Pathirana to N Zadran
FOUR MORE! This time off the blade of Zadran. The scores are level now. Short of a length and outside off with the pace being taken off, Zadran hops and crunches that to deep covers region as the ball races away for a boundary.
Scorers are level now... This will be Afghanistan's second-highest successful chase in ODI cricket.
46.5
1
M Pathirana to N Zadran
There it is. A comprehensive victory for Afghanistan to start the three-match ODI series. Najibullah Zadran with the winning runs. Short of a length again outside off, Zadran hops and slashes that to the right of the sweeper cover for a single. Afghanistan have defeated Sri Lanka by 6 wickets in the series opener.
AFG won by 6 wickets
18:23 IST| Time for the post-match presentation ceremony!!!
Ibrahim Zadran is the Player of the Match.
Ibrahim Zadran(Player of the match): "Yeah, it's pretty hard to get out like that, I wanted to finish the game, I wanted to make a hundred but it was hard luck. To be honest, our bowlers bowled very well they executed the plans and they didn't let Sri Lanka go over 300 runs. Then with the bat, I and Rahmat Shah executed the plan with the bat. Yeah, 280 was a good score but not that good, we wanted to stoop them near 250 but it didn't happen.
I was middling the ball pretty well and I told Rahmat Shah that I don't want to stop and want to hit the oddballs. I told him don't play the rash shots just take the singles."
I was middling the ball pretty well and I told Rahmat Shah that I don't want to stop and want to hit the oddballs. I told him don't play the rash shots just take the singles."
Dasun Shanaka (Sri Lanka Captain): "I think the plan was to play positive cricket coming into the encounter. But losing 4 wickets upfront didn't really help our cause. We were short on runs today. It was a good surface and anything above 300 runs would have been a good score. The injury of Lahiru Kumara took us back. Matheesha Pathirana came after playing the whole season of IPL. So, it's not easy playing a 50-over game straightaway. We need to keep changing the bowlers in order to prepare for the Qualifiers. The batting line-up will mostly be the same."
Hashmatullah Shahidi(Afghanistan Captain): "Yeah, first of all very happy about the performance by the team, as you mentioned they were 4 down for 84 and then Asalanka and Dhananjaya played well. In the last overs, we dragged back the game and bowled pretty well. Yeah in the last overs, we had 5 fielders inside the circles due to the over rate, but the boys executed the plans very well. Yeah, Ibrahim Zadran is a match-winner for us he is improving day by day."
So, Afghanistan have started the ODI series on a positive note at Hambantota. Both these sides will meet again on Sunday for the second fixture in the three-match series. Do join us there and stay tuned for more cricketing action around the world. For now, this is Megh Mandaliya, signing off on behalf of my co-commentators Ninaad Dixit and Hitesh Peddurwar alongside our scorer/analyst Dushyant Madhukar Kumar. Cheers!