{"id":81110,"date":"2018-09-17T15:58:09","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T22:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=81110"},"modified":"2018-09-17T15:58:09","modified_gmt":"2018-09-17T22:58:09","slug":"afghanistan-knock-sri-lanka-out-of-asia-cup-after-upset-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/09\/17\/afghanistan-knock-sri-lanka-out-of-asia-cup-after-upset-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan knock Sri Lanka out of Asia Cup after upset win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy\u00a0 france24.com<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

ABU DHABI (AFP)\u00a0–\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Afghanistan continued their rise in international cricket with an upset 91-run win over Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi on Monday, knocking the former champions out of the Asia Cup.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka needed to win the Group B match to stay in the tournament but were outwitted by smart batting from Afghanistan who put up a fighting total of 249 all out at Sheikh Zayed Stadium.<\/p>\n

The fighters then laid into Sri Lankan batting with spinner Rashid Khan (2-26), Mohammad Nabi (2-30) and Mujeeb Ur Rahman (2-32) sharing wickets as the five-time former winners were bowled out for 158 in 41.2 overs.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka did not help their cause with two run outs while skipper Angelo Mathews played a reckless shot off Nabi and was caught near the boundary for 22.<\/p>\n

This becomes Afghanistan’s first-ever victory against Sri Lanka in three one-day internationals after losing in the Asia Cup 2014 and World Cup a year later.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka, who now have lost 30 of their 40 matches since January 2017, had lost to Bangladesh by 137 runs in Dubai on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Bowled out for a paltry 124 against Bangladesh, Sri Lankan batting again failed miserably with only Upul Tharanga (36) and Thisara Perera (28) offering some fight.<\/p>\n

Afghanistan were helped to 249 all out in their 50 overs with Rahmat Shah scoring 72 and Ihsanullah Janat shipping in with 45.<\/p>\n

Shah struck five boundaries during his 90-ball knock and added 50 for the second wicket with Janat (45) after Afghanistan won the toss and opted to bat on a flat pitch.<\/p>\n

Janat hit six boundaries in his 65-ball innings while his opening partner Mohammad Shahzad batted in his aggressive style, hitting a six and four boundaries in his 47-ball 34.<\/p>\n

Rahmat then added another 80 runs for the fourth wicket with Hashmatullah Shahidi who made a sedate 52-ball 37.<\/p>\n

For Sri Lanka seamer Thisara Perera took five for 55 and spinner Akila Dananjaya finished with two for 39.<\/p>\n

Defending champions India, Pakistan and qualifier Hong Kong are placed in Group A.<\/p>\n

Pakistan beat Hong Kong by eight wickets in Dubai on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Top two teams from each group will qualify for the Super Four stages from where top two teams will play the final in Dubai on September 28.<\/p>\n

India face Hong Kong in Dubai on Tuesday before their high profile match against Pakistan a day later at the same venue.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy\u00a0 france24.com ABU DHABI (AFP)\u00a0–\u00a0 Afghanistan continued their rise in international cricket with an upset 91-run win over Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi on Monday, knocking the former champions out of the Asia Cup. Sri Lanka needed to win the Group B match to stay in the tournament but were outwitted by smart batting from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}