Sri Lanka beat Afghanistan in a close match
22nd February, Dunedin - Sri Lanka beat Afghanistan in a close match by 4 wickets here on Sunday. Afghanistan put a good show but lost the match in final overs.
Mahela Jayawardene, who is playing his last world cup scored his nineteenth century to guide his team to a 4 wickets victory against minnows Afghanistan.
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Chasing 233 to win, both the Sri Lankan openers departed for golden ducks and veteran Sangakkara also departed quickly but Jayawardene played a match winning knock.
Quotes
Mathews - 'A lot of relief at getting the win. Afghanistan put us under a lot of pressure with some quality bowling. Afghanistan have showed that they are here to compete. Mahela played a fab knock, I was struggling and idea was to stick around with him. Having Mahela at the other end always helps as he is cool under pressure. We could have done a few things better. Hopefully can rectify it in the remaining games."
Nabi - "We could have scored more runs. At least 30-40 runs short on this pitch. We bowled very well but couldn't put pressure after the 30-over mark, missed a few run outs. It was a tight game and proud of the boys for the spirit shown. We are trying to improve game by game. Credit to Jayawardene for the way he played calmly under pressure. Lot of positives for us despite the loss."
Jayawardene - 'Happy to be on the winning side. There was some movement on the pitch. I wasn't worrying about the run rate and focus was only on batting 50 overs. We weren't exactly at our best today but good to get the win on the board. We need to improve some things.'
