Afghanistan bowlers rose to an unlikely occasion in an incredible effort to defend their paltry 134 to storm into the Super League semifinals at the U19 World Cup.
Sri Lanka, who had a dream run in the tournament with wins over Australia, West Indies and Scotland in the group stage, extensively crumbled under pressure to fall agonisingly short in chase.
Just five days after the batters helped them usurp Zimbabwe to the knockouts, Afghanistan suffered a massive collapse after being asked to bat first in the big game. Afghanistan went from 24/0 to 26/4, before Allah Noor and Abdul Hadi plotted recovery. But they too could only add 47 runs before captain Dunith Wellalage dismissed Noor. Just when it looked like a lower-order capitulation was round the corner, Hadi and #8 batsman Noor Ahmad came together to show further resistance. It took them past the 100-run mark but as soon as left-arm pacer Vinuja Paul broke through with Ahmad’s wicket, Afghanistan went from 132 for 7 to 134 all out. Paul finished with astonishing figures of - 9.1 overs | 2 maidens | 10 runs | 5 wickets.
The chase should’ve been straightforward for a side that has largely batted well in the tournament. They even reserved their best batting effort - in chase of 250 against West Indies for their final league game six days ago. However, knockouts stage brought a different level of pressure and they crumbled spectacularly around it.
The almightly downfall began as early as the opening over when Bilal Sami took out opener Sadish Rajapaksa for first-ball duck. The Afghanistan bowlers had few runs to fight with, but they took it to Sri Lanka nonetheless in the early stage of the chase to keep pushing them on the backfoot. Sri Lanka got into a rut that they just couldn’t emerge out of as 2 for 1 became 20 for 3, 30 for 5 and alarmingly 43 for 7 in the 18th over. Six of the top seven in Sri Lanka’s batting card returned single-digit score to push them towards an embarrassing surrender in what should’ve otherwise been a routine run-chase.
At this stage, up stepped captain Wellalage in the hope of altering the narrative and the course of the game. He combined with #9 batsman Raveen de Silva to bat all the way until the 41st over, and more importantly inch Sri Lanka past 100 and closer to the target. It began to seem like an evening of ‘so near, yet so far’ for Afghanistan when Wellalage cut an innocuous short ball to backward point which ended the game-defining partnership. That dismissal pushed Sri Lanka to 112 for 8 and gave Afghanistan a reason to believe again. Leg spinner Izharulhaq Naveed helped Afghanistan dig their teeth further as he bowled a well-disguised googly to knock over de Silva, the other set Sri Lankan batter.
Vinuja Paul had the opportunity to add some batting heroics to his first-innings fifer. He brought a little bit of composure that Sri Lanka needed from 116 for 9 in the 42nd over as they had plenty of time to knock off the 19 remaining runs. With every passing over, they inched closer to pulling that off, but at the end of the 46th, an attempt to keep Vinuja on strike at the start of 47th ended with a run out - fourth of the innings - to send Afghanistan players into a delirium. With that dismissal, Sri Lanka fell just four runs short of their target, allowing Afghanistan to set up a semifinal date with th form-team England on February 1.
Brief Scores: Afghanistan U19 134 in 47.1 overs (Abdul Hadi 37, Noor Ahmad 30; Vinuja Ranpaul 5-10) beat Sri Lanka U19 130 in 46 overs (Dunith Wellalage 34; Bilal Sami 2-33, Noor Ahmad 1-20, Naveed Zadran 1-19) by 4 runs
-Agencies
