Mohammad Nabi’s scintillating innings almost led Afghanistan to a spirited run-chase and almost prevented Sri Lanka from qualifying for the Super Fours. Hashmatullah Shahidi’s team had to do the unthinkable to survive a game of small NRR margins as Kusal Mendis’ robust 92 came on the back of a solid start from openers Pathum Nissanka and Dimuth Karunaratne.

As a result of Sri Lanka pacers striking thrice inside the PowerPlay, the “unthinkable” of chasing down 292 in 37.1 overs was worsened. Rahmanullah Gurbaz nicked a drive to Mendis behind the stumps in the third over, snuffing out one of Afghanistan’s biggest hopes in this chase. The chasing side was two down for 27 runs in the fifth when Ibrahim Zadran played one ball from Rajitha onto his stumps.

In an attempt to get a move on from the early wobble, Dasun Shanaka turned to left-arm spinner Dunith Wellalage for just one over. The first ball thrown by Matheesha Pathirana was a leg-before catch by Naib after Rahmat Shah and he had accumulated 21 runs in two good overs.

The Afghan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi fought hard to keep Rahmat alive, facing Shanaka and Dhananjaya de Silva. This partnership dragged the equation for Afghanistan down to 181 in 20 overs, a target often deemed gettable on such a surface in the shortest format.

Sri Lanka hit back with the wicket of Rahmat in the 19th over as he lifted a straight shot to Pathirana at mid-on. Mohammad Nabi arrived next and almost took the game away from Sri Lanka with his on-slaught with the bat. Nabi scored the fastest ODI fifty for Afghanistan, in 24 balls only.

After Nabi’s wicket fell in the 27th over, skipper Shahidi was playing an anchor role along with Karin Janat, who was taking the bowlers to the cleaners. The equation was down to 71 off 48 balls, still a very achievable target.

The Sri Lankan captain, Shanaka took a bet and introduced young left-arm spinner Wellalage, who did not disappoint and took the wicket of both the set batsman Shahidi and Karim Janat. Sri Lanka was ahead at this stage but Afghanistan still got Rashid Khan at the crease who doesn’t need any introduction when it comes to hitting.

Rashid and Najibullah Zadran took the Sri Lankan bowlers to the cleaners and brought down the equation to 27 of 13 to qualify for the super four. Rajitha broke the partnership by taking Najibullah’s wicket, with Afghanistan needing 15 of 7 balls. Rashid took on the young spinner Wellalage for three boundaries and brought the equation to 3 of 1 required.

But Mujeeb was on strike for the last ball, Dhananjay De Silva was very calm and composed and took Mujeeb’s wicket to make it impossible for Afghanistan to qualify further. But such were the NRR calculations that Afghanistan still had a chance if they could communicate with the dressing room for NRR calculations and scenarios. But I think they missed the trick and fell short of the target and lost the match by 2 runs.

Later in the post-match interview, Afghanistan head coach, Jonathan Trott revealed that his side was not aware of the exact winning scenarios with ball-by-ball calculations and no communication was provided to them by match officials either. So they could have gotten to, 293 after 37.2 overs, 294 after 37.3 overs, 295 after 37.5 overs 296 after 38 overs.

But overall it was a nail-biter at Lahore and a very competitive game of cricket played by both sides. Though Sri Lanka won the match, Afghanistan will be more disappointed because they were ahead in the game for most of the part but could not hold onto their nerves at the end.