Prabath (5/107) bowls Sri Lanka to an easy win

It was a winning start for Sri Lanka’s new Test Captain Dhananjaya de Silva when Sri Lanka recorded a comprehensive ten wicket win over Afghanistan with a day to spare in their one off test match played at SSC grounds yesterday.

The third day belonged to Afghanistan and they fought back strongly to come up to 199 for 1 wicket trailing by 42 runs but yesterday from morning session after new ball was taken Sri Lankan bowlers controlled the game to bundle out Afghanistan for 296 one hour after lunch and Sri Lanka had an easy 56 run winning target.

Prabath Jayasuriya

The openers Dimuth Karunaratne 32 in 23 balls with 3 fours and a six and Nishan Madushka 22 in 23 balls with 4 boundaries reached the target without any trouble within 7.2 overs just before tea to ensure victory and undoubtedly leg spinner Prabath Jayasuriya was the match winner taking 5 for 107 in his 47 over spell to have a match bag of 8 for 114 to earn man of the match award.

After departure of Rahmat Shah and Ibrahim Zadran only Nasir Jamal made an unbeaten 41 in 67 balls with 5 fours and a six but others failed to make any impression with the bat as they were all out for 296t in 112.3 overs.

Prabath Jayasuriya who took his seventh five wicket haul which is the first five wicket haul at SSC while paceman Asitha Fernando 3 for 63 and Kasun Rajitha 2 for 59 played good supporting roles to Prabath Jayasuriya to end the Afghan innings.

Sri Lankan openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Nishan Madushka did it great style with Dimuth making the winning hit to the mid wicket boundary off the bowling of leg spinner Quis Ahmed.

Chamika fully recovered

Team manager Mahinda Halangoda also had good news about injured Chamika Gunasekara who was rushed to Hospital on third day now fully recovered and back to the Hotel after 24 hours observation. Sri Lanka team will leave for Pallekele on February 7 for the three game ODI series against Afghanistan

The day started with 199 for 1 wicket number three batter Rahmat Shah was first to be out after 6.2 overs and Kasun Rajitha made breakthrough to dismiss Rahmat who scored 54 in 119 balls with 5 fours. The opener Ibrahim Zadran couldn’t stay long time yesterday as he was clean bowled by leg spinner Prabath Jayasuriya in 89.5 over and Ibrahim hit 114 in 259 balls with 12 fours .