excellent comeback! malinga fires a yorker on middle, his loyal ally over the years and cleans him up to finish things off
Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan, 7th match at Cardiff,, Jun 04 2019 - Match Result
7.30pm Afghanistan go to Taunton from here, which has a reputation for being a high scoring venue. Sri Lanka go to Bristol, where they take on Pakistan. It's time for me to make the trek home as well, so on behalf of Peter Della Penna and Thilak Rama, it's goodbye. Thanks for joining, see you tomorrow.
Dimuth Karunaratne I think we had a good start after a long time and suddenly we lost a couple of wickets and we were on the backfoot. Bowling and fielding was the highlight. Wickets are the key, 187 is not easy to defend, we know their openers go hard, but once we got them they were on the backfoot and we kept getting wickets. Bowlers did a really good job, fielder did good job, but batting through the middle stage needs to improve
Gulbadin Naib Start of the day, the bowler's didn't bowl right areas, they scored too heavily in the first ten overs, but it was good how Nabi bowled but it wasn't a good start. Wicket was not easy for the batsmen and so we'd asked the bowlers to hit the deck hard and they came back well during the middle. We need some improvement in the batting, we need more partnerships.
Thisara Perera We all know because of the conditions, the ball does something when you bowl the right length. Fielding wise, I'm normally a good fielder, happy to take a crucial catch. We have an experienced attack, we thought we could defend the total
7.10pm As darkness descended over Sophia Gardens, there was light in the Sri Lankan camp as they scripted a remarkable comeback with the ball and won their first ever match in seven attempts at their bogey venue, Cardiff.
It hadn't started well as the Afghanistan openers got stuck in early but Nuwan Pradeep, inexplicably left out last match, produced a career best performance that included the scalps of the dangerous looking Zazai and Naib, when the Afghanistan captain and Najibullah Zadran were threatening to take the game away.
And when it mattered, it was over to Lasith Malinga, who rolled back the years with some vintage yorkers towards the end. It wasn't the perfect fielding performance either but when it mattered, Dimuth Karunaratne hit the stumps directly to send Najibullah Zadran back and virtually seal the match then and there.
slower ball on off and he has launched this miles up into the sky and clears wide long-on with ease
yorker, tailing in, gets him on the foot but it's sliding down
full on off, drilled to cover, they take off to keep Najibullahon strike but it's the Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne, he hits the stumps directly and finds his man short
slower ball from the back of the hand, he swings early and misses completely, just goes over the middle stump
short one, follows the batsman who was probably expecting a fullish slower ball with the third-man having come up
full outside off, he threw his bat at it and thick outside edge flew down to the third-man fence and what's more that's a no ball because Sri Lanka did not have enough fielders in the circle
a well directed short one, follows the batsman who was backing away, can't make contact
short outside off, too much width and he slaps this over cover-point, one bounce and into the boundary
length outside off, lift off the wicket for Udana as the batsman jabs at it and is beaten outside off
full slower one outside off, watches it closely and defends safely
another attempted yorker, turns out to be a low full toss, brings his bat down straight and even more importantly, on time
yorker and that's vintage Malinga! On middle stump and he had no chance with that as it crashes into middle stump
another slower, full delivery, dipping on the batsman but he watches it closely and defends to midwicket
short one, gets him on the side of the grille as he goes for the pull and misses
another full slower one, squeezed to mid-on for one
Slower ball, full and down the leg side, completely bamboozled the batsman but unfortunately for Malinga, it wasn't on target
Lasith Malinga has not won an ODI in a Sri Lanka shirt since their victory over Zimbabwe at Hambantota on 6 July 2017 - a record that sees him with 21 defeats and 1 no result
Barnburner of a finish on the cards. Here to take you to the end is Ankur!
short of a length very wide outside off, sucker ball for Najibullah going for a flat-footed waft but doesn't edge it.
full on off stump, nudged to mid-on. Udana was on the ring and had too much ground to cover.
2W | ||||
1W | ||||
1W | ||||
1W | ||||
1W | ||||
2W |
Sophia Gardens, Cardiff | |
Toss | Afghanistan, elected to field first |
Series | |
Season | 2019 |
Player Of The Match | |
Match number | ODI no. 4149 |
Hours of play (local time) | 10.30 start, First Session 10.30-14.00 Interval 14.00-14.30, Second Session 14.30-18.00 |
Match days | 04 June 2019 - day (50-over match) |
Umpires | |
TV Umpire | |
Reserve Umpire | |
Match Referee | |
Points | Sri Lanka 2, Afghanistan 0 |