Sadeera and Angelo steer SL to series win

Sadeera Samarawickrama (51) and Angelo Mathews (42n.o) added 66 runs sixth wicket stand as Sri Lanka recorded 72 runs win over Afghanistan in their second T-20 game played at Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium yesterday. In fact this victory also marked 2-0 series win with one game to spare and Sri Lankan dominated both games. The first game won with thrilling 4 runs margin but yesterday it was fine team effort to beat them more comfortably with 72 runs margin.

Afghanistan chasing a target of 188 runs managed to get 115 all out in 17 overs with three overs to spare. Afghanistan were struggling 31 for 5 wickets after 4.3 overs while opening bowler Angelo Mathews was leading the way to grab first two wickets of openers Hazratullah Zazai (1) and skipper Ibrahim Zadran (10).

Dashing stroke player Rahmanulla Gurbaz who came to the middle at number three  scored 13 in 8 balls with 2 fours LBW to mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana. Azmatullah Omarzai was out first ball duck to Binura Fernando.

Mohammed Nabi 27 in 17 balls with a four and 2 sixes and Karim Janat 28 in 23 balls with 2 fours and a six put up some resistance but that combination was not enough to reach their target. Skipper Wanindu Hasaranga who took 2 for 19 reached the milestone of 100 T-20 International wickets which is highest by Sri Lankan while Matheesha Pathirana, Angelo Mathews and Binura Fernando also took two wickets each.

The experienced Angelo Mathews who scored an unbeaten 42 ended with 2 for 9 in his 2 over spell was adjudged Man of the Match.Sri Lanka invited to bat first and Afghanistan skipper Ibrahim Zadran decided to field first once again as same as in the first T-20 game at this same venue.

The openers Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis made a positive approach to increase the run rate from the beginning while Nissanka the top form batter started aggressively. At one stage the openers were maintaining over 12 run rate per over but Nissanka who scored 25 in 11 balls with 5 fours was out LBW in the third over which bowled by  paceman Azmatullah Omarzai.

Kusal Mendis who was not in good form scored 23 in 14 balls with 4 fours while Noor Ahmed took a simple catch at backward point off the bowling of Fazalhaq Farooqi in the fourth over and Sri Lanka were 49 for 2 wickets at that stage. However after the departure of Nissanka and Mendis Dhananjaya de Silva and Sadeera Samarawickrama couldn’t maintain good run rate and Afghan bowlers put on some pressure.

Dhananjaya de Silva made a run a ball 14 and experienced leg spinner Mohammed Nabi took his wicket in 10th over.Skipper Wanindu Hasaranga once again promoted to bat ahead of Charith Asalanka, Angelo Mathews and Dasun Shanaka.

All rounder Hasaranga started with usual aggressive mood scoring 22 in just 9 balls with a four and 2 sixes but Nabi accounted his second wicket and Hasaranga departed with Skipper Ibrahim Zadran took a well judged catch at long on in 11th over and Sri Lanka were 110 for 4 wickets.Charith Asalanka the deputy skipper couldn’t stay long and he was dropped at 1 by Azmatullah Omarzai but Omarzai fought back to get Asalanka’s wicket in the 14th over and Asalanka scored only 4 in 8 balls .

The most experienced batter Angelo Mathews and Sadeera Samarawickrama the two former St. Joseph’s cricketers made a superb batting display during the last five overs and that was the turning point of the innings.Samarawickrama the right hander used full effort to make shots all over the grounds while Mathews played a good supporting role to build up 66 runs partnership for the sixth wicket to make a total of 187 for 6 wickets in 20 overs. Mathews hit an unbeaten 42 in 22 balls with 2 fours and 4 sixes while Samarawickrama who top scored 51 in 42 balls with 5 fours finally last ball out hit wicket off the bowling of Naveen -ul- Haq. In fact this was Samarawickrama’s maiden T-20 fifty while Mathews hit back to back two sixes over Azmatullah in the 19th over which cost 21 runs. It was the most expensive over of the innings.Azmatullah Omarzai and Mohammed Nabi took two wickets each while Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen -ul- Haq shared a wicket each.

However Afghan overall fielding was not up to the standard and Sri Lanka batsmen got that advantage to reach 187 runs in 20 overs with a run rate of 9.35 in front of more than 18,000 spectators.Sri Lanka played without any changes from the last game while Afghan made only one change for this game included Hazratullah Zazai for Qais Ahmed to strengthen the batting.The third and final T-20 game will be played at the same venue Dambulla tomorrow (21) from 7 pm.

Chief scores

Sri Lanka 187 for 6 wickets in 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 25, Kusal Mendis 23, Dhananjaya de Silva 14, Sadeera Samarawickrama 51, Wanindu Hasaranga 22, Angelo Mathews 42*, Azmatullah Omarzai 2/40, Mohammed Nabi 2/25)

Afghanistan 115 all out in 17 overs (Ibrahim Zadran 10, Rahmanulla Gurbaz 13, Mohammed Nabi 27, Karim Janat 28, Angelo Mathews 2/9, Binura Fernando 2/18, Wanindu Hasaranga 2/19, Matheesha Pathirana 2/22, Maheesh Theekshana 1/30, Dasun Shanaka 1/17).