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Kolkata, Many would have smirked secretly when Asghar Stanikzai, the Afghanistan skipper, on the eve oftheir opener against Sri Lanka, asserted that they could beat the defendingchampions.
Well, the Afghans didn’t beat them but were not outplayed either. In fact, until quite late in the second innings, they were in the game, and could have given the Lankans a run or their money with better fielding.
After posting a challenging 153-run total, they had their nose ahead several times but poor fielding and a fine 83 off 56 balls by Tillakaratne Dilshan ensured Lanka sneaked to a six-wicket win in the penultimate over.
Afghanistan were quite good with the bat, especially their skipper Stanakzai, who held the innings together with a fine 62 of 47 deliveries, and Samiullah Shenwari, who chipped in with a quickfire 31 of 14 balls. It was thanks to the efforts of these two that Afghanistan managed to post a challenging total.
The Afghans showed the same spunk in their bowling, too, and kept the Lankans shackled for the first ten overs. But they let down themselves in fielding and that denied them a chance to run the Lankans even closer.
“We played good cricket but we need to improve our fielding. Had we fielded well, we could have put more pressure on them,” said Afghanistan coach Inzamam-ul-Haq.
