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#3 The rise of Afghanistan Cricket
Afghanistan has been rising steadily as they came into this tourney on the back of triumphs in Ireland where they overpowered the home team adequately both in the T20I (2-0) and ODI (2-1) series.
They knocked out former champions Sri Lanka after comfortably taming the Lankan Lions by 91 runs in a group ‘B’ encounter. Top-order batsman Rahmat Shah scored a patient 72 as Afghanistan scored a defendable 249 against Sri Lanka at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi. Openers Ihsanullah Janat (45) and Mohammad Shahzad (34) scored pivotal runs at the top to give Afghanistan a great platform.
249 was more than enough for the Afghanis as their spin trio of Rashid Khan, Mujeeb and Nabi restricted Sri Lanka for a meager 158, beating them by 91 runs. With this failure, Sri Lanka’s Asia Cup 2018 campaign came to an early end.
