Friday Sep 18, 2026
Friday Sep 18, 2026
Saturday, 20 June 2026 04:07 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Opener Avishka Fernando smashed an 87-ball century – his second in the ‘A’ Team One-day Tri-Nation Series, and 23-year-old left-arm seamer from Middeniya, Hambantota, Dulaj Samuditha took his maiden five-fer as Sri Lanka ‘A’ crushed Afghanistan ‘A’ in the final league match by a thumping 103-run margin at the Rangiri Dambulla Cricket Stadium yesterday.
The win saw Sri Lanka ‘A’ finish the league standings on top with 6 points and qualify to meet second placed India ‘A’ with 4 points in the final on Sunday at the same venue. Afghanistan ‘A’ who ended third with 2 points were knocked out of the Series.
For Afghanistan ‘A’ to have any chance of qualifying they had to reach their target of 323 in 20.3 overs. But the task proved beyond them as they folded up for 219 in 42.5 overs.
Samuditha had Afghanistan ‘A’ already on the back foot when he snapped up the first two wickets in the first over of the innings to have them reeling at 2-2. At the 20.3 over stage Afghanistan ‘A’ were nowhere close to reaching the target having lost three wickets for 107.
Opener Hassan Eisakhil (74 off 78 balls, 5 fours, 3 sixes) and Bahir Shah (35) put up the highest partnership of the innings – 75 off 65 balls, but Afghanistan ‘A’ kept on losing wickets at regular intervals to make a match of it. Farmanullah Safi slammed 43 off 39 balls (3 fours, 3 sixes) in the latter stages of the game by which time the result was more or less done and dusted.
Samuditha returning for a fresh spell cleaned up the innings to end with figures of 5/25. He was well supported by another young seamer Kugathas Mathulan who took 3/38.
In comparison to the start Afghanistan ‘A’ had, Sri Lanka ‘A’ were given a solid platform to build their total of 322-8 by Niroshan Dickwella (66 off 54 balls, 12 fours) and Avishka Fernando (110 off 97 balls, 13 fours, 1 six) who put on 133 for the first wicket off 99 balls. Nuwanidu Fernando (45 off 70 balls) helped maintain the tempo by sharing a further stand of 93 off 114 balls with Avishka.
Sri Lanka ‘A’ suffered a middle order collapse losing five wickets for 48 in 9 overs, sliding to 274-6 but managed to get beyond the 300-run mark with useful contributions from the tail. Fast bowlers Faridoon Dawoodzai (4/60) and Farmanullah Safi (3/68) caused the middle order wobble taking seven wickets between them. – [ST]
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