Image Credit- ICC
Afghanistan demonstrated remarkable poise in the
pursuit for the second game in a row, reducing a poor target of 242 with icy
coolness. Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, and Azmatullah Omarzai all scored
fifty points apiece to lead the way, and with six points now earned,
Afghanistan passed Sri Lanka to take fifth position in the standings.
In the meantime, Sri Lanka is all but eliminated from
the running for a semi-final spot; in order to have any chance, they must win
each of their remaining three matches against Bangladesh, India, and New
Zealand.
Afghanistan’s bowlers set the stage for this victory
by stifling Sri Lanka’s batters on a deck that was almost designed for batting,
allowing their hitters to easily reach the target.
The most interesting peculiarity of this game was that
both sides hardly ever scored at more than five an over, even though they were
given a true surface with no spin and little lateral movement. Fazalhaq Farooqi
was the best of the lot, finishing with figures of 4 for 34.
But their motivations were different. While
Afghanistan was merely adopting the strategy head coach Jonathan Trott had laid
out for them, Sri Lanka might be blamed for having a criminally indifferent
mindset. The broadcast camera would repeatedly move over his enormous
whiteboard during the inning, which had 10-over markers neatly arranged with
phrases like “50 after 10,” “100 after 20,” and so forth.
Because of how effectively Afghanistan carried out their duties, Sri Lanka felt
helpless.
On the fourth ball of the chase, Dilshan Madushanka
tailed one in to remove middle stump, but Afghanistan had a playbook and they
played it exactly as planned. Afghanistan quickly put an end to whatever
momentum Sri Lanka might have been hoping to gain, even when the wickets did
fall.
The backbone of their pursuit was created by the
partnerships of 73, 58, and 111, which were between Ibrahim Zadran and Shah,
Shah and Shahidi, and Shahidi and Omarzai. They were happy to wait for loose
balls and infrequently needed or wanted to take a chance, thus limits were
never sought after and merely accepted when they were offered during all of
that work.