Afghanistan began its defense of 233 runs by taking two wickets in the first eight balls, including a wicket on the opening ball, in a Cricket World Cup Group Amatch on Saturday. But Sri Lanka rebounded to ease home with a four-wicket victory with 10 balls remaining in Dunedin, New Zealand.
Sri Lankas Mahela Jayawardene finished with 100 runs. It was his 19th score of 100 or more runs in a one-day match. Sri Lanka finished 236-6 in reply to Afghanistans 232 all-out.
But the story of the match, other than Jayawardenes century, is how well Afghanistan played.
Eight balls into Sri Lankas innings, both opening batsmen were out. Lahiru Thirmanne, with an average of 32.26 runs, was out first ball, lbw by Dawlat Zadran.
Usually when a player is out having not scored a run he is out for a duck. When someone is dismissed on the first ball of the innings, that player is said to have a diamond duck. Such was it for Thirmanne.
The second player to be sent back to the dressing room was Tillakaratne Dilshan. Average: 38.94. Saturday: Out for a duck, bowled by Shaper Zadran and caught by Afsar Zazai.
Sri Lankas third man in the batting lineup, Kumar Sangakkara, is a world-class batter with an average of 40.91 runs and a strike rate of 78.13.
Essentially for every 100 balls Sangakkara faces in an ODI he scores 78.13 runs. Anything above 70 runs is considered very good.
Yet on Saturday, Hamid Hassan dismissed Sangakkara for seven runs. Hassan was a major story: He took three wickets for 45 runs, all while playing with an Afghanistan flag painted on his cheek.
It was left to Jayawardene and captain Angelo Mathews to steady the ship. Mission accomplished. Mathews partnered with Jayawardene and finished with 44 runs. It is a sign of Sri Lankas deep batting lineup that three batters could be surprisingly dismissed and still it didnt deter the overall effort.
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Cricket World Cup 2015: Sri Lanka defeats Afghanistan