Rahmat Shah, skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi and Azmatullah Omarzai slammed well-timed half-centuries to complement the superb bowling effort of pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi as Afghanistan defeated Sri Lanka by seven wickets in their World Cup match here on Monday.
Chasing 242 for victory, Afghanistan went past the target in 45.2 overs for the loss of three wickets. A 111-run partnership between Shahidi (58 not out) and Azmatullah (73 not out) for the unbroken fourth wicket stand formed the cornerstone of the big win, their third in this tournament.
The result also helped them climb to the fifth place on the table with six points and with three more matches remaining, the Afghans will dream of making a run for the semi-finals.
After their breathtaking performances against England and Pakistan, Afghanistan were high on confidence as they went into the match against Sri Lanka. And Farooqi made a huge statement of that confidence to grab four wickets for 34 runs to demolish the islanders, who were shot out for 241.
Then, Rahmat (62), Shahidi and Azmatullah then played with determination to help their side reach the target.
Despite the early wicket of his opening partner Rahmanullah Gurbaz, dismissed by left-arm pacer Dilshan Madushanka for a duck, Ibrahim Zadran (39) steadied the innings during a 72-run second wicket stand with Rahmat.
Once Zadran was dismissed, Rahmat and Shahidi put their heads together to do the rebuilding job, with the former doing the bulk of the scoring in the 58-run stand for the third wicket. After Rahmat was out, Shahidi and Omarzai then finished the job smartly.
“Quite happy and proud of the team... the way we performed in all departments. The chase against gave us a lot of confidence and belief that we can chase any kind of target. The chase today (Monday) was very professional,” Shahidi said.
With inputs from PTI
