Fazalhaq Farooqi claimed figures of 4/34 as Afghanistan kept their semi finals hopes alive by toppling Sri Lanka by 7 wickets in Pune on Monday. The Afg vs SL game in Gahunje had an official crowd attendance of 12,177– a very decent figure for a weekday match not involving the hosts.
The result took Afghanistan to fifth in the table- they have games against the Netherlands, Australia and South Africa coming up.
Afghanistan included Fazalhaq Farooqi in place of Noor Ahmad in the playing XI. Sri Lanka on the other hand included Dushmantha Chameera for the injured Lahiru Kumara, and Dimuth Karunaratne for Kusal Perera.
After being asked to bat first, Sri Lanka made a solid start reaching 134-2, before a middle-order collapse saw them slump to 185-7.
However Angelo Matthews and Maheesh Theekshana put on 45 runs for the eighth wicket before both fell to Farooqi, as the Lankans were bowled out for 241 runs in 49.3 overs.
In reply, Dilshan Madushanka got Sri Lanka off to a dream start by cleaning up Rahmanullah Gurbaz for a duck in the very first over.
The pair of Ibrahim Zadran along with Rahmat Shah added 73 runs for the second wicket stand before the former perished to Madushanka for 39.
Rahmat featured in a third wicket stand of 58 runs along side Hashmatullah Shahidi before the former fell to Kasun Rajitha for 62.
Skipper Shahidi and Azmatullah Omarzai remained unbeaten on 58 & 73, as Afghanistan overhauled the target with 28 balls to spare.
With this win they move to the fifth position.
Afghanistan 242 for 3 (Omarzai 73, Rahmat 62, Shahidi 58*) beat Sri Lanka 241 (Nissanka 46, Farooqi 4-34, Mujeeb 2-38) by seven wickets