Afghanistan continued their magical journey in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, as they comprehensively defeated Sri Lanka by seven wickets in Pune on Monday (October 30) to move to the fifth spot on the points table.
Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss and elected to bowl first, and his bowlers responded by restricting Sri Lanka to 241 on a good batting pitch at the MCA Stadium.
Pathum Nissanka (46), captain Kusal Mendis (39), and Sadeera Samarawickrama (36) got off to starts but couldn't go on to get a big score. Fazalhaq Farooqi (4/34) recorded his ODI career-best figures, while Mujeeb-ur-Rahman took 2/38.
Afghanistan lost wicketkeeper-batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz for a duck, but Ibrahim Zadran (39) and Rahmat Shah (62) stabilized the innings before captain Hashmatullah Shahidi (58*) and Azmatullah Omarzai (73*) put on a unbroken 111-run stand to finish off the game in 46th over.
READ ALSO: Cricket fraternity lauds Afghanistan's 7-wicket win over Sri Lanka; register 3rd win of World Cup
Sri Lanka became the third team after England and Pakistan, all previous World Cup winners, to be stunned by Afghanistan in the ongoing World Cup. With three games still remaining, Afghanistan can qualify for the semi-finals if they continue to play as well as they have recently.
Former Indian cricketers, Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh, were overjoyed by Afgh win in Pune as they danced to a popular Afghan song in the Star Sports studio. The duo collabed to share the reel on their respective Instagram pages.
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