We’ve known some amazing and enthralling encounters in the Asia Cup over the years and we saw yet another such encounter in today’s Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan match-up. Sri Lanka posted a competitive 291 in their 1st innings and it was going to be a tough chase, but the Afghan side was making light work of the chase all innings long.
While they stayed ahead of the run rate right through the chase, they were letting wickets fall at regular intervals. And their goal was never to just win the game but to win in 37.1 overs in order to complete an unlikely qualification to the Super Fours stage. By doing so, they would knock out the co-hosts Sri Lanka, as Bangladesh had already qualified to the next stage.
Asia Cup 2023 – AFG vs SL game ends in thriller!
At the end, they needed 16 runs in the last 7 balls but it was a complete mess up by the Afghanistan lower order to go on to lose from the position they held. They needed 3 runs off the final delivery and Dhananjaya de Silva got the wicket of Mujeeb Rahman, caught on the long on boundary. However, there was more drama as there was still a qualification chance for the men in blue.
Sri Lanka beat Afghanistan by 2 runs to qualify into Super 4.
Heart-break for Afghan boys. pic.twitter.com/q1ZzkcQDBL
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) September 5, 2023
What a pity . Afghanistan fought so valiantly but being unaware that in the last 3 balls 6 runs would have seen them through and they chose to block thinkinthey cannot. Reminded of Mark Boucher in 2003 WC.
Support staff need to be more pro active especially in such qualification…— Venkatesh Prasad (@venkateshprasad) September 5, 2023
If Afghanistan managed to hit a six to win the game, they would still qualify. The commentators on air were explaining how they could get to 295 to still make the Asia Cup 2023 Super Fours stage, but it turned out that the Afghanistan camp had no idea about this. One would think that the message would be passed on to the new batsman in, but it wasn’t. And it turned out to be tragical for Afghanistan.
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Fazalhaq Farooqi was the new man in and he had three balls to try and clear the boundary. However, he defended his first ball at the crease, which was a juicy full toss from de Silva. That was enough to tell us that they had no idea that they were still in with a chance. The next ball too, was defended, and Farooqi was adjudged LBW on the third ball he faced. Instead of qualifying, Afghanistan ended up being bowled out.
Let’s crowdfund some money to buy a laptop for the Afghanistan team.
So frustrating.
— Gabbar (@GabbbarSingh) September 5, 2023
Srilanka ne match jeeta or Afghanistan ne dil ❤️. Best game of this Asia cup by far. #AsiaCup2023
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) September 5, 2023
It’s not something you expect in international cricket, but it’s quite embarrassing that Afghanistan ended up losing by 2 runs, because they were’t fully aware of their qualification chances. In a day and age where there’s so much of technology and analytics available at all times, we didn’t see this coming at all.
Afghanistan would've still qualified had Fazalhaq Farooqui taken a single and Rashid Khan had hit a boundary in the remaining balls of the 38th over.
A massive miscalculation by Afghanistan which will pinch them for a long! pic.twitter.com/9ZVACRoc97
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) September 5, 2023
Rashid Khan was down on his knees as they missed out on qualifying, but he was more hurt when he got off the field to realise they gave up when they were still in with a chance. It’s a pity but we got the feeling that even the Sri Lankans would’ve not been aware of the permutations and combinations after they crossed the 37.1 overs mark. Heartbreak for Afghanistan though, eventually.
Very very poor from Afghanistan calculation / data staff , they didn’t even know that if their batters smashed sixes after 37.1 they would still qualify . Farooqi stopped these 3 most important and crucial balls !!!!!
Feeling bad for them
Cruel game 💔#AFGvsSL pic.twitter.com/l1bYzuNQ7G— ZaiNii💚 (@ZainAli_16) September 5, 2023
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