The Super 12 of the ICC T20 World Cup is halfway through. Teams are battling out for the semi-finals. Afghanistan is the first team to go out of the race after losing to Sri Lanka today at the Gabba.
It has been a sorrowful World Cup for Afghanistan. Out of their four scheduled matches, they played just two and lost both of them. Today they played against Sri Lanka at the Gabba. Afghanistan had won the toss and elected to bat first. Following a good start to the innings, the batsmen put up a total of 144.
All the top-order batsmen had good starts but none of them could convert their good starts into high scores. Afghanistan fell short of about 15 runs. A total of 144 did not seem to be the greatest of totals at the Gabba. There was no firepower at the end of the innings for Afghanistan.
Unlike Other Pitches in Australia, Today’s Pitch Seemed to Favor the Spinners.
Wanindu Hasaranga bowled exceptionally well. He was not hit for a single boundary in his 4-over spell and even managed to pick up 3 wickets for just 13 runs.
Sri Lanka had a chaseable target for the second innings. The only worry for the Sri Lankan batsmen was the Afghani spin twins. Sri Lanka lost a total of 5 wickets and out of the 5 wickets, 4 wickets were shared by Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman. Having said that, Sri Lanka had to wash out just the 8 overs by these two bowlers and even though, Rashid picked 2 wickets he was a bit expensive in his 4 overs.
De Silva was the batting ace for Sri Lanka. He won the game for Sri Lanka single-handedly. He was exceptional with the bat for Sri Lanka. De Silva scored his first half-century in the ICC T20 World Cup. He stayed at the crease right till the end and scored a 42 ball 66.
Afghanistan is now officially out of the ICC T20 World Cup. After today’s win, Sri Lanka still has some chance as they face off against Australia. It is the group of death and we will have to wait right till the very end to see who qualifies for the Semi-finals.
