Image Credit- AFP
After claiming two early wickets and smashing 42 not
out off 22 balls, Angelo Mathews helped Sri Lanka win the T20I series with a
commanding 73-run victory in the second match. All of Sri Lanka’s top order
players contributed: Pathum Nissanka scored 25 off 11, Kusal Mendis scored 23
off 14, Sadeera Samarawickrama played a solid innings, scoring 51 off 42, and
Wanindu Hasaranga once again shown extreme aggression, scoring 22 off 9.
Afghanistan never really got off the ground in response. Despite a strong connection
between Muhammad Nabi and Karim Janat, none of their top five players managed
to break the 15, and they never seemed to have the pace for this chase.
Throughout the first 17 overs, Afghanistan was dismissed for 115 runs.
Despite entering the game in the fifteenth over,
Mathews did not erupt right away because it is not usually how he plays. After
making four of his first nine deliveries, Mathews started hitting the boundary.
He first went past Naveen-ul-Haq with a four over short off Fazalhaq Farooqi,
then he blasted a four back in the following over. When Azmatullah Omarzai
bowled the 19th over, that’s when he truly released the old finisher. He hit
the opening ball off Omarzai over deep midwicket and then slammed the second
over deep square leg. The following delivery, an agitated Omarzai delivered an
extremely short ball outside off, and Mathews punished him by hitting him over
long-on.
He was dropped by Mohammad Nabi before his last six was struck – again back
over the bowler’s head – but nevertheless, Mathews collected 33 runs off his
last nine balls.
With the new ball, Mathews’ ability to provide
inexpensive overs was one of his greatest assets in the legendary Sri Lanka T20
sides of the past. He was also incisive on this particular occasion.
Hazratullah Zazai was nicking a lovely away-seamer behind him on the fifth
ball. He got Ibrahim Zadran for a prize wicket with the second ball of his
subsequent over after the latter mishit a slower ball to mid-on. Even though he
just had to bowl those two overs, he took two wickets and only gave up nine
runs.
At no point in the chase did it seem like the visitors were in it. After
Mathews’ early wickets, left-armer Binura Fernando began to strike, and later,
Wanindu Hasaranga began to cause trouble, and finally Matheesha Pathirana
became a menace with his extreme pace (he frequently bowled deliveries over
150kph). In addition to Mathews, Fernando, Hasaranga, and Pathirana took two
wickets each. Dasun Shanaka was excellent at cover, taking two good catches.