World T20 cup
Afghanistan out of the T20 World Cup after going down by six wickets
BRISBANE
ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup’s Group 2 was left wide open Tuesday as Afghanistan was stunned by Sri Lanka while the New Zealanders were thrashed by English men.
In the first game Tuesday, Srilankans comprehensively downed Afghanistan by 6 wickets as they spared 9 remaining balls. Chasing an average target of 145, the Sri Lankans achieved their target in 18.3 overs with 6 wickets remaining.
Dhananjaya de Silva grabbed the highest score in this comfortable run chase, as he posted 66 (42). “It was a good performance from bat and ball. DDS (Dhananjaya de Silva) played a classy innings. He showed that in T20 it’s not all about taking the bowlers on, he timed his innings,” Sri Lankan skipper Dasun Shanaka said. “Credit to him and Wanindu. The bowlers bowled in the right areas. We found some consistency today, what is important is to continue in the next game as well. The other games are beyond our control, but we are aiming to win our next game with a healthy rate which gives us a good chance to qualify,” he added.
Earlier batting first, the Afghanis were restricted to 144-8 from their 20 overs. The biggest setback for Afghanis was the loss of wickets at regular intervals. No batsman could cross 30 runs’ mark as Rahmanullah Gurbaz remained top scorer with 28 (24).
In a high voltage clash later at the same venue, England trounced red hot New Zealand by 20 runs’ margin. Batting first, Joss Buttler’s fireworks lead England to a comprehensive 179-6. Buttler and his opening partner Alex Hales remained the only players to show solid resilience against Kiwi bowlers. Buttler smashed 73 (47), while he was well supported by Hales’ solid 52 (40). In reply, the Kiwis were never on course to chase down the total as the required run rate always kept climbing, and eventually was out of their approach. They were restricted to 159-6 from their twenty overs.
“I said at the toss that we didn’t think too much about the past poor performance, we have great players in the playing XI and in the squad, we had the confidence that showed up today. It’s a ruthless tournament, last year South Africa went out despite having 4 wins out of 5 games,” said Buttler, the winning captain. “This is a World Cup, there will be pressure and the best teams do thrive under it. We bat deep, I thought the wicket was a little bit tricky, especially against spin and I thought Alex Hales played a fine hand, it’s all about partnerships, one day he gets going, some other day it’ll be my turn,” he added.
