Sri Lanka’s campaign to win their maiden Under19 Men’s Asia Cup title ended in disaster with a 106-run hammering at the hands of Afghanistan at Al Amerat, Oman yesterday.
It was Sri Lanka’s second successive defeat in Group B following a 45-run loss to Bangladesh on Saturday, and it put them out of contention from the tournament.
Sri Lanka’s only win was against associate member Malaysia in their opening match. It was a disappointing performance from Sri Lanka of whom much was expected.
Sri Lanka made it to the semi-finals in the last two editions in 2024 and 2025, but not so on this occasion.
Once the Afghanistan batsmen had battered the Lankan bowling for 275, the writing was on the wall for them. Knowing they needed a good start if they were to challenge that total, Sri Lanka began quite disastrously losing two wickets in the first three overs to be 5-2 and were soon 41-4 with right-arm pacer Noor Ali Niazi having claimed all four wickets for 18 runs in six overs.
Kithma Withanapathira tried his best to resurrect the innings with a 48-ball half-century (58) inclusive of 8 fours and 2 sixes but hardly found any support from the other end. Sri Lanka were eventually bundled out for 169 in the 35th over to give Afghanistan their third win in as many matches and finish on top of Group B.
Afghanistan’s innings was built on a superb century from Subhan Zakhail who made 107 off 111 balls (13 fours, 1 six) and a half-century from Abidullah Nadarjan (55 off 64 balls, 7 fours). Seamer Sethmika Seneviratne was the pick of the bowlers finishing with 3/44.
With Bangladesh beating Malaysia in their final Group B match by a thumping margin of 205 runs yesterday, they went through to the semi-finals with Afghanistan.
Scores:
Afghanistan (U19) 275 (49.5) (Abidullah Nadarjan 55, Subhan Zakhail 107, Shah Faisal Rahimi 33, Tahir Sarwary 32, Sethmika Seneviratne 3/44, Vigneshwaran Akash 2/60) beat Sri Lanka (U19) 169 (34.1) (Kithma Withanapathirana 58, Sethmika Seneviratne 23, Extras 20, Noor Ali Niazi 4/35, Amir Hamza 2/42, Sohail Khan 2/42, Mohammad Ali Barakzai 2/24)