The final match of the supper 11 round between Sri Lanka and Afghanistan in the 2023 Asia Cup cricket tournament ended with a very emotional victory for Sri Lanka.
The effort of the Afghanistan team to enter the super four round by giving a very strong fight in this match surprised the modern cricket world.
But unfortunately they had to withdraw from the tournament.
The Sri Lankan team won the toss and decided to bat first in this match held at the Lahore cricket Stadium in Pakistan. After that, at the end of their allotted fifty overs, they scored 291 runs for eight wickets.
This included the 92 runs scored by Kusal Mendis.
The Afghanistan team, which came to play the reply innings, had a very difficult goal. It was not to achieve a target of 293 runs in fifty overs, but to win the match by maintaining the necessary run rate to enter the super 4 round.
They had a very difficult target for this, that is to score 293 runs in 37.1 overs and win the match.
This resulted in an average scoring rate of 7.89 runs per over.
At the beginning of the Afghanistan innings, no one had much doubt how this match would end. Many believed that the Afghan team could not even come close to the runs scored by the Sri Lankan team.
By the end of the first 18 overs of the Afghan innings, they had scored only 121 runs for 4 wickets. 172 runs had to be scored for victory in 19.1 overs remaining.
The rate of runs to be maintained here was recorded as 9 runs per over.
But the Afghan team did not seem to give up their fight.
Mohammad Nabi, who joined the Afghan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi, who was batting at the wicket at that time, took the match under his control. The Sri Lankan team was dazzled by Nabi hitting sixes and fours in the four corners of the field and showed an easy way to reach his target.
Nabi received invaluable support from captain shaahidi for this.
Both of them managed to score 80 runs in 29 balls. Here, Nabi managed to score 65 runs in 32 balls. This valuable innings of Nabi included 6 fours and 5 sixes. This decisive innings of Nabi is very beautiful. At that time, the Sri Lankan team, which appeared to win the match, suddenly fell into a terrible precipice. Skipper Dasun was unable to understand what to do. By now, it was clear that the victory of the match was swinging towards the Afghan team.
The Afghan batsmen who came after that were also a headache for the Sri Lankan team and managed to score very quickly. Here, the biggest headache for the Sri Lankan team was Rashid Khan, the all-rounder from Afghanistan.
When the last batsman of the Afghan team came to the wicket, they had scored 289 runs in 37.1 overs. But their target was to score 293 runs in 37.1 overs to win the match. But at that time they were 4 runs short of victory.
Thus, the Sri Lankan team qualified for the super 4 round by defeating Afghanistan after a very intense match.
But this is the most unfortunate incident that happened here.
The Afghan team had another chance to win the match and enter the final round, but they didn’t know it.
This means that if they win the match by scoring 6 runs in 37.4 overs, they will qualify for the final round.
At that time, Rashid Khan was at the wicket. But his behavior showed that he had given up the game and lost his temper. At that time, his only hope was to win the match. Therefore, he told the last batsman who was with him . Stay and protect the wicket for the remaining few balls of that over.
But what happened, became clear to Rashid when he lost the match and left the field. When they realized that it was the biggest mistake made by him as well as the Afghanistan team in their cricket history, they threw themselves out of the tournament. In any way, if the leadership and management of the team had known about this earlier, the outcome of this match could have taken a different form. If they had known that, they would have only had to send a message to Rashid Khan while hitting the ball at the stumps.
For a fast batsman like Rashid Khan, hitting a six in four balls will not be a difficult task.
However, fortunately for the Sri Lankan team and unfortunately for the Afghanistan team, that did not happen.
But the cricket fans got the opportunity to watch a match that was seen in recent times and a very stressful match until the last ball.
