Sri Lanka in Super Four after breaking Afghan hearts in a thriller!
Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium audience as if they saw a thriller movie! The movie itself showed scene-equation changes, climax-anti-climax and tragedy at the end. The last match of the group stage of the Asia Cup between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka was less than a jump thriller movie!
After winning the toss and batting first, Sri Lanka collected 291 runs for 8 wickets on the scoreboard. Not only would Afghanistan have won, they would have reached the target of 292 runs in 37.1 overs. The Afghans did not touch that target for a short time. After losing all the wickets in 37.4 overs, Afghans managed to get 289 runs on the scoreboard. In that dramatic victory of 2 runs, the Lankans joined Bangladesh from Group 'B' in the Super Four.
But Afghanistan did not get off to a very good start chasing the daunting target of 292 runs. Sri Lankan pacer Kasun Rajitha knows the way to dressing room to two Afghan openers in 27 runs. All-rounder Gulbadin Naeeb went back as soon as the team reached 50 runs.
After that, three middle order batsmen Rahmat Shah (45), Captain Hashmatullah Shahidi (59) and former captain Mohammad Nabi (65) led the Afghan innings. But all of them got cut while making quick runs.
In the end, Karim Janat, Najibullah Zadran, Rashid Khan played cameo innings and tried hard to take the team to the Super Four. However, due to a miscalculation, it did not happen. What is wrong with that calculation?
Afghanistan needed to reach the target of 292 runs in 37.1 overs to make it to the Super Four. But in 37.1 overs they had a slim chance not to. In that case, 295 runs had to be scored in 37.4 overs. Even if the scores were tied and they won by a six, Afghanistan had a chance of 38.1 overs. However, the Afghans did not know this calculation. That's why the forehead of this young power of Asian cricket is burnt.
The fate of Sri Lanka has been happy with that. They won two of the two matches in the group stage and entered the last four as group best. Bangladesh group runners-up with 2 points from two matches.