Lankan Lions captain Wanindu Hasaranga claimed his first-ever T20I series victory since being appointed full-time skipper as Sri Lanka defeated the Afgan Giants in the second game of the three-match series by 87 runs.
Afganistan’s skipper, Ibrahim Zadran, won the toss and elected to field first. After being invited to bat Sri Lankan openers Pathum Nissanka (25 off 11 deliveries) and Kusal Mendis (23 off 15 deliveries), they got the Lankan lions off to a flying start.
The openers added 45 runs for the opening wicket before Azmatullah Omerzai dismissed Pathum Nissanka to get his first breakthrough for his team. Kusal Mendis was dismissed quickly in succession by Fazalhaq Farooqi.
The Sri Lankan team kept losing wickets at regular intervals, and the home team got reduced to a score of 121/5 in the first 14 overs. However, the Lankan Lions made a strong comeback as Sadeera Samrawickrama (51 off 42 deliveries) and Angelo Mathews added 66 runs to help Sri Lanka reach 187/6 from 121/5.
For Afghanistan, it was Nabi who was the pick of the bowlers, as he picked up 2/25 in his four overs.
Coming in to chase, the Afghan team lost half of the match inside the first five overs. However, Mohammad Nabi and Karim Janat added 39 runs to show some resistance, but Afghanistan could only manage 115 in 17 overs.
On the other hand, Sri Lankan captain Hasaranga became the fastest Sri Lankan to pick up 100 T20I wickets as he broke Lasith Malinga’s record.
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Hasaranga achieved the feat in his 63rd T20I match, whereas it took Malinga 76 T20I to get 100 wickets in the format.
Hasaranga is the second-fastest to get to the milestone and is behind Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan, who bagged 100 T20I wickets in just 53 games.
