In the 30th match of the ongoing ODI World Cup, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan locked horns with each other yesterday, on October 30 at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. After a nail-biting match, Afghanistan registered its third magnificent win of the tournament against Sri Lanka. The Afghans have been continuously reckoning on their exceptional capabilities and coming up to everyone’s expectations by these consecutive wins. They registered a 7-wicket victory against Sri Lanka, amassing a total of 6 points on the leaderboard now.
Despite the loss, the defending champions hit a high as Sri Lanka delivered a target of 241 runs ro Sri Lanka after getting bowled out with 3 balls to spare. Sri Lankan opener Pathum Nissanka smashed a 46-run knock off 60 balls while skipper Kusal Mendis and team’s top performing batsman Sadeera Samarawickrama hit 39 and 36 runs respectively. The Sri Lankan bowling unit could not rise up to expectations yesterday as they could only dismiss 3 batters of Afghanistan.
A stutter fall!
While Sri Lankan skipper and wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis smashed a total of 39 runs off 50 deliveries, he went on to hit 3 boundaries. During the second innings of the match, a hilarious moment was witnessed as Kusal Mendis fell onto the stumps while attempting to catch the ball at his deep high on the right side. The stumps were rather rattled and within a few moments of the incident, the match resumed again.
Kusal’s performance so far
Kusal Mendis essentially stands as Sri Lanka’s third top-performing batsman after the likes of Pathum Nissanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama. Kusal has scored a total of 268 runs in all the six matches he has played till now at a run rate of 127.01. In its next, Sri Lanka will take on India, the top-tier team on the ICC Rankings table on November 2 at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.
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