Sri Lanka have beaten Afghanistan by 10 wickets in the one-off Test match on February 5, Monday. The hosts led by their new skipper Dhananjaya de Silva had won the toss and opted to bowl first in at the SSC, Colombo. His bowlers immediately responded by bowling out the Afghans for a paltry 198 in 62.4 overs. Rahmat Shah was the leading scorer with 91. (More Cricket News)
For the Lankans, Vishwa Fernando 4/51 was the pick of the bowlers in the 1st innings and was well supported by Asitha Fernando (3/24) and Prabath Jayasuriya (3/67).
Once Sri Lanka came into bat, it was all domination. Veteran Angelo Mathews (141) and Dinesh Chandimal (107) ran the show as they posted a massive 439 in their first innings. The duo stitched a 232-run stand as the hosts took total domination of the Test match. Naveed Zadran shone with the ball with a four-fer.
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Afghans were handed a massive 241 run lead and in reply, were quite positive in their approach. Ibrahim Zadran (114) and Noor Ali Zadran (47) put up a 100-plus stand for the opening partnership but after wicket of Ibrahim and Rahmat (54) it all went downhill for the visitors.
Left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya took five wickets (5/107) as tourists crumbled from their strong start to be bowled out for 296 in their second innings on the fourth day. Afghanistan started the day on 199 for one but lost six wickets for 53 runs in the second session at the Sinhalese Sports Club.
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The visitors could only manage a lead of 56 as the home team rached that total with quite ease. Afghanistan had started the day with only 42 runs to cover the deficit and hoping to build a fighting score after Ibrahim and Noor Ali (47) had shared a century stand, their highest for the first wicket. After Noor Ali's departure, Ibrahim had put on an unbeaten 93 runs for the second wicket with Rahmat Shah.
This was the first Test match between the two countries after Afghanistan was admitted as a Test-playing nation in 2018.
