Dasun Shanaka: “I think the plan was to play positive cricket, but four early wickets meant the top order didn’t fire. It was a wicket where we could have set 300-plus. I think we could have also bowled better. Lahiru Kumara’s injury also didn’t help. For Pathirana coming straight from the IPL is not easy, especially to play a 50 over game. But this is the perfect game for him, so we will continue with him definitely. We need to win, but mainly we need to get ready for the qualifiers. We’ll change the bowlers, but the batting line-up will stay the same.”
Hashmatullah Shahidi: First of all I’m very happy about the performance of the team. I felt our recovery in the last overs was very good with the ball. Ibrahim Zadran is a match winner, and improving match by match, I want him to improve in the future as well.”
Ibrahim Zadran is the Player of the Match for his 98 off 98, inclusive of 11 fours and 2 sixes: “It’s really hard to get out like that [short of a hundred], but it’s part of the game. To be honest, our bowlers bowled very well and executed the plans according to the conditions. They kept them below 300. 268 was a good score, but not that much. We wanted to get them around 250, but Rahmat Shah and I wanted to finish the game. I was middling the ball so well, so I told Rahmat I didn’t want to stop my runs. I told him not to play any extra shots, play simple and rotate the strike.”
Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan Highlights today. 1st ODI, Friday 2-6-2023, Afghanistan tour of Sri Lanka 2023, Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium, Sooriyawewa, Hambantota.
Hashmatullah Shahidi says he wanted to bowl first as the wicket looks fresh and could seam in the first half hour.
Dasun Shanaka says he would have bowled first as well, but happy to bat on a “good deck”. Adds that having Dimuth Karunaratne’s experience back will be a boon for the side.
Afghanistan, elected to field first
Sri Lanka team: Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis, Pathum Nissanka, Charith Asalanka, Angelo Mathews, Dasun Shanaka (capt.), Dhananjaya de Silva, Dushan Hemantha, Kasun Rajitha, Lahiru Kumara, Matheesha Pathirana
Afghanistan team: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahman Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt.), Najibullah Zadran, Mohammed Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Fareed Ahmad
Head to Head In ODI’s: 7
Sri Lanka Won: 4
Afghanistan Won: 2
Sri Lanka ODI Rankings: 9th
Afghanistan ODI Rankings: 8th
Form guide
(Last five matches, most recent first)
Sri Lanka LLLLL
Afghanistan LWWWW
Match Timings: 4:00 AM GMT | 9:30 AM Local
Umpires – Nitin Menon, Prageeth Rambukwella
TV Umpire – Michael Gough
Match Referee – Ranjan Madugalle
Reserve Umpire – Michael Gough
Match number – ODI no. 4579
