Pathum Nissanka’s record-breaking double century on Friday steered Sri Lanka to a comfortable 42-run win over Afghanistan in the opener of their three-match one-day international series at Pallekele.
Set a stiff target of 382, Afghanistan reached 339-6 as Mohammad Nabi and Azmatullah Omarzai scored centuries after their team were reduced to 55-5.
Nissanka’s unbeaten 210 was Sri Lanka’s first one-day international double hundred, breaking the island nation’s longstanding record highest score of 189 by Sanath Jayasuriya against India in 2000.
Photo: AFP
The 210 was also the joint fifth-highest individual score in one day internationals.
“We are absolutely thrilled with that performance,” Sri Lanka seamer Pramod Madushan told reporters.
“Great to be part of the dressing room in such an historic moment. It was tough out there, but Pathum did well to soak up all the pressure and put us on top,” he said.
Sri Lanka’s 381-3 was also their biggest total at the ground and the team’s fourth-highest overall.
Unstoppable Nissanka’s knock included 20 fours and eight sixes from the 139 balls he faced in his first one-day international since the World Cup.
Afghanistan stumbled early in their daunting chase, with the tourists losing five wickets inside nine overs.
Madushan cut through the top order for match figures of 4-75.
Dushmantha Chameera took the other two wickets to fall, but walked off the field halfway through his eighth over, appearing to be suffering from back pain.
Omarzai (149 not out) and Nabi (136) fought back aggressively with a 242-run stand for the sixth wicket, Afghanistan’s second-highest for any wicket in one-day internationals, to briefly give Sri Lanka a fright.
Omarzai’s maiden century came from a flicked six off pacer Janith Liyanage.
Sri Lanka’s innings saw Avishka Fernando score 88 from as many deliveries before he was caught by Ibrahim Zadran at backward-point in the 27th over.
Skipper Kusal Mendis was next in, but failed to make an impact and fell for a 31-ball 16.
Sadeera Samarawickrama hit 44 off 36 deliveries in his 120-run partnership with Nissanka.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
RSS