By Srian Obeyesekere

Sri Lanka swept to a 10-wicket victory over Afghanistan with a day and nearly 3 hours to spare  knocking off the 56 to seal it a short time before tea after the visitors had flattered and faltered crashing from a formidable overnight 199 for 1 wickets to 296 in losing their last nine wickets for 82 runs in a new ball pace-spin havoc to the spin of Prabath Jayasuriya who demonized the batsmen accounting for 5 of those to fall including the prize wicket of century maker Ibrahim Zadran who he clean bowled for 114, the batsman adding just 13 to his overnight score while Kasun Rajitha, substituting for the injured Chamika Gunasekera claimed 2 wickets in hastening the collapse by having star batsman Rahmat Shah caught behind by stumper Sadeera Samarawickrama for 54 with his first over by foxing him to edge a peach of an angling delivery.

The ever-fiery Asitha Fernando provided with 2 scalps to scuttling out an Afghan side that badly failed to drive home the initiative wrested the previous day of the 9-wicket leash they enjoyed to making a match of it. Clearly the SSC track yielded to the fourth day terrors helpful to the sharp Lankan attack from a batting friendly disposition of the first three days as Afghanistan’s batsmen came apart like nine pins as Sri Lanka got home with approximately three hours to spare with Dimuth Karunaratne on 32 and Nishan Madushka on 22.

CHIEF SCORES:

Afghanistan 198 & 296 (112.3 Overs) (Ibrahim Zadran 114, Rahmat Shah 54, Noor Ali Zadran 47, Nasir Jamal n.o. 41, Hashmatullah Shahidi 18, Prabath Jayasuriya 5/107, Asitha Fernando 3/63, Kasun Rajitha 2/59)

Sri Lanka 439 & 56/0 (7.2 Overs) (Dimuth Karunaratne n.o. 32, Nishan Madushka n.o. 22)