Sri Lanka beat Afghanistan by four wickets in their Super Fours match of the Asia Cup here on Saturday. Sri Lanka chased down the target of 176 with five balls to spare with useful contributions from Kusal Mendis (36), Pathum Nissanka (35), Danushka Gunathilaka (33) and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (31).

For Afghanistan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Naveen-ul Haq took two wickets apiece. Earlier, young opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz gave a brilliant exhibition of his dashing strokeplay during his 45-ball 84 as Afghanistan reached 175 for 6 in their 20 overs after being put into bat.

However, Afghanistan will be a bit disappointed as the last five overs yielded only 37 runs and they lost five wickets with Gurbaz’s dismissal putting some sort of a brake on the run flow.

Gurbaz, the 20-year-old right-hander who was a part of IPL champions Gujarat Titans, smashed half a dozen sixes and added 93 in just 10.4 overs with Ibrahim Zadran (40).

The evening belonged to Gurbaz, who did get a slice of luck as Danushka’s foot touched the rope when he went for a successive second six off mystery spinner Mahesh Theekshana, having slog-swept him for his first six.

Burl stuns Aussies

Leg-spinner Ryan Burl picked up 5 for 10 in just three overs on Saturday as Zimbabwe stunned Australia in the third ODI in Townsville, registering an exciting three-wicket victory and denying the hosts a series clean-sweep.

Sent in to bat, Australia slumped to 141 all out in 31 overs with a 94 from 96 balls by David Warner the only major contribution. Their bowlers failed to defend the total.