T20 World Cup: Sri Lanka beat Afghanistan by six wickets

Wanindu Hasaranga led an inspired bowling effort before Dhananjaya de Silva hit a fine fifty as Sri Lanka kept their semifinals hopes alive with a sixwicket win over Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup on TuesdayMystery spinner Hasaranga 313 and pacer Lahiru Kumara 230 shared five wickets among themselves to restrict Afghanistan to 144 for 8Dhananjaya then took control of the Sri Lankan innings with a strokeful unbeaten 66 off 42 balls as the reigning Asia Cup champions crossed the line with nine balls to spareWith the win Sri Lanka climb up to the third spot in group 1Afghanistan on the other hand dropped out of semifinal contentionDefending a modest total Sri Lanka started off well but Mujeeb ur Rahman 224 produced a leading edge to mark the end of Pathum Nissanka 10 putting the Sri Lankans under pressure Fazalhaq Farooqi 122 bowled a maiden in the following over to tighten the screwsAlso Read Rain pain at MCG again Afghanistan Ireland settle for one point eachHowever Kusal Mendis 25 hit backtoback boundaries in the next over both over midwicket as Sri Lanka dallied to 28 for 1 in the PowerplayRashid Khan 231 struck in his first over as Mendis went for a premeditated sweep but topedged for the keeper to catch itWhile the Afghans tried to build pressure by bowling dots Sri Lanka continued to score at a healthy rate milking boundaries and sixes every now and thenRashids second over went for 14 runs as de Silva hit a four down fine leg before slogsweeping the star spinner over deep midwicket for a sixDhananjaya continued the onslaught with a six off Mohammad Nabi in the next over to keep the required run rate within sevenTogether with Charith Asalanka 19 Dhananjaya stitched a 54run stand followed by a 42run partnership with Bhanuka Rajapaksa 18 to take Sri Lanka to victoryEarlier while the Afghans were able to stitch a few partnerships at the top Sri Lanka did well to strike at regular intervalsThe ball swung in the opening two overs but after that the Sri Lankan bowlers struggled to get their lengths right as Rahmanullah Gurbaz 28 donned the role of the aggressorThe wicketkeeper batter danced down and hit a glorious straight drive off Kasun Rajitha to register the first maximum of the inningsThe Afghans then hit three more fours and a six to collect 42 off the first six oversHowever right after the powerplay Kumara fashioned the first breakthrough for the Sri LankansGurbaz looked to go big but there was just enough movement as the ball traversed the gap between the bat and pad to crash into the stumpsThe spinners were then able to slow down the proceedings after the wicket but Usman Ghani 27 whacked Kumara for a six to long offLooking to up the ante Ghani once again tried to go for it in the 11th over off Hasaranga who was brought back into the attackHowever the Afghan was was done by a googly that had a touch of bounce on it and skipper Dasun Shanaka pouched it at deep mid wicketIbrahim Zadran 22 became Kumaras second victim in the 13th overWith wickets in hand Mohammad Nabi 13 dispatched a slower one to extracover But the skipper wasnt able to stay in the middle for long as Afghanistan failed to fire in the death overs losing five wickets for 40 runs off the last 30 ballsSri Lanka were once against guilty of being sloppy on the fieldThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever