Sri Lanka finished yet another day of the one-off Test against Afghanistan in Colombo strongly as they garnered a 212-run lead by stumps on day 2. All 7 Afghanistan bowlers conceded runs well above 3 an over, with the home side scoring at a rate of 4.04 to attain a commanding position in the Test.
Nishan Madushka and Dimuth Karunaratne resumed at 80-0, but the former departed for 37 after Naveen Zadran struck. Kusal Mendis also perished soon after, managing only 10 runs off 22 deliveries. Dimuth Karunaratne's dismissal was perhaps the most disappointing as he mistimed a full toss from Qais Ahmed to short mid-wicket, forcing him to walk back for 77 when a century was clearly there for the taking.
Nevertheless, Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal bed in for a massive partnership as the pair reached the magical three-figure mark. Zadran broke the 232-run partnership between the two as Chandimal departed for 107. While Dhananjaya de Silva departed for a golden duck, the anti-climatic end was that of Mathews as he hit the stumps with his bat inadvertently after putting away a half-tracker for 4.
Rahmat Shah agonisingly falls short of a hundred as Afghanistan gets skittled for 198:
As far as the proceedings of day 1 goes, Sri Lanka were right on the money with the ball from the outset. Asitha Fernando dismissed Ibrahim Zadran for a duck, followed by Vishwa Fernando ending the half-century partnership between Noor Ali Zadran and Rahmat Shah.
While Rahmat held the innings together, Afghanistan could not manage even one half-century partnership in the remaining innings and folded for 198. Asitha Fernando and Prabhat Jayasuriya took 3 scalps each, while Vishwa Fernando finished with 4.
