Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka and Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi share the trophy after the ODI series ended in a one-all draw

Player of the Match Charith Asalanka

Player of the Series Ibrahim Zadran

• Asalanka sings the praises of Wellalage

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka’s white ball captain Dasun Shanaka gave full credit to his batsmen for the incredible chase of 314 runs to beat Afghanistan in the third and final ODI at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday which enabled them to share the three-match ODI series one-all.

“For this match we changed the bowling combination to see whether it can be effective. The first ODI, I think if we had batted the 50 overs we could have won. The points to qualify for the 2024 World Cup is important so we came to this match with that very much on our minds, but I don’t think we bowled well. 

“We can bowl better than we did yesterday so the credit must be given to the batsmen for seeing us to the win. This is a win achieved as a team by the batsmen in chasing down the target,” said Shanaka at the post-match press conference.

“We are aware of what our task is in the series against New Zealand. We have to win two matches and we hope to do that and try to gain automatic qualification. Since I took over as captain, we have lost only one series to India, otherwise we have won or drawn the other series. In the past two years we have played some good cricket. I think the losses to West Indies, England and Bangladesh is what has cost us valuable points.”

With Wednesday’s win, Sri Lanka has moved one slot up to ninth position with 77 points from 21 matches, and need at least two wins to occupy the vital eighth spot and displace West Indies who have completed all their matches and sit on 88 points.

Sri Lanka’s next assignment in preparation for the 2024 World Cup is a T20I and ODI series in India in January and Shanaka said the squad that will be picked for the tour will most probably be retained throughout till the World Cup.   

“The selectors are having talks with the coaches. We don’t know what our squad for next year’s World Cup is going to be because there are several players who are likely to return from injuries and have to be considered. I think from the series against India, we will have a combination that we will retain until the World Cup.” Shanaka rated Afghanistan as a good white ball team. “They play around the world in leagues and in the points table, they are at the top. They have beaten some of the other top nations in the world. Our goal was to beat them and get the points and progress up the table but we were not able to do that. They have a good team that will perform well for the next few years.”

Player of the Match Charith Asalanka praised the batting efforts of 19-year-old Dunith Wellalage which helped Sri Lanka to chase down the imposing target and win.

“Towards the 43-44 overs I found it difficult as I got cramps. It was hot out there and during my partnership with my captain we ran a lot of twos. When Wellalage came I knew he was a potential player. He said to me to hit towards the line and as much as possible to try and hit the ball between the gaps. That’s how we managed to get to the target,” said Asalanka. “Before that, I built up a partnership with Dasun to lay the base for the chase. We identified that Rashid Khan was going to be our danger man. What Dasun, Dunith and I discussed was not to give a wicket to Rashid but to see him off and try and score off the rest. Dunith and I played an over or two without giving our wickets away and the task after that became a lot easier.”

“Initially the ball swung although there wasn’t any grass on the pitch. It didn’t help the spinners either. Afghanistan also played three spinners, four with (Mohammad) Nabi. Dasun said that it was a flat pitch and that we can reach the target if we bat the 50 overs. We got some good contributions from Kusal, Pathum, Chandimal, Dasun and Wellalage and managed to reach the target.”

Asalanka described his knock of 83* off 72 balls as “my best innings in ODI cricket”.  “Dunith did a great job at that stage scoring 31* in less number of balls. It is not easy to do so under a lot of pressure as Afghanistan has a lot of experienced bowlers who play in leagues around the world. Dunith performed as an experienced cricketer. He has good morale and I think he has a great future.”

Asalanka gave credit to his captain for slotting him in at number five in the batting order, a position from where he has played some match winning knocks for his country.   

“I had not batted at number five before but during the tour to India last year, Dasun told me to bat at number five and that he will back me. I made some runs on that tour and from then onwards I have been scoring consistently (ODI batting average of 47).”

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