Sri Lanka had sent Bangladesh in to exploit what early morning moisture could be found, and when Soumya Sarkar fell to the second ball of the match it looked a wise call.
But Haque counter-attacked effectively, and though he lost Liton Das with the score at 42, carried on in the company of Asif until his side had reached 183 in the 41st over. This was a platform on which the middle order capitalised with a handful of big hits to nudge 250. Sanitha de Mel added two more wickets to that of Sarkar’s to be Sri Lanka’s most incisive bowler.
Their chase of the target was off to a sound enough start, before the loss of Sebastian Perera heralded a collapse of 4 for 16. From 58 for 4 the Sri Lankans were always likely to struggle, and they were rounded up comfortably short of Bangladesh despite a determined 83 from Angelo Jayasinghe and Lahiru Madushanka’s 48. Bangladesh’s bowlers shared the spoils, Sarkar nabbing Jayasinghe as one of two wickets in an over with his part-time mediums to snuff out Sri Lanka’s resistance.
Afghanistan crashed to a 109-run defeat at the hands of Pakistan at John Blanck Oval. Afghanistan chose to field and were able to keep Pakistan to 253 for 6. Pakistan captain Babar Azam top-scored with 75 but his effort at the top of the order was almost undermined by a middle-order wobble as a result of which the team slipped to 5 for 148 in the 37th over. But Mohammad Nawaz stepped up amid the pressure, smashing 66 off just 50 balls, including seven fours and a six, to take the score past 250. He added 103 with No.5 batsman Umar Waheed, who was unbeaten on 43 off 44 balls.
Left-arm seamer Zia-ul-Haq starred with the ball, taking four wickets including the openers who added 36. The only bright spots in an otherwise poor scorecard for Afghanistan were a half-century from Hashmatullah Shaidi at No.3 and a knock of 30 from Mohibullah Paak in the middle order. The rest of the line-up didn’t contribute much and Afghanistan were bowled out for 144 in 45.1 overs.
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