Sabbir Hossain :Sri Lanka retained their winning streak in the 12th Asia Cup when they defeated newcomers Afghanistan by 129 runs in their third ODI match at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Monday.Electing to bat first, Sri Lanka made a challenging 253 for the loss of six wickets in the allotted 50 overs and then they bundled out Afghanistan for 124 off 38.4 overs. Most of the Afghan batsmen failed to make respectable score due to tight bowling of Sri Lankan bowlers.Skipper Mohammad Nabi was the only notable batsman for Afghanistan who got success hitting 37 from 43 balls with three fours and a six.Ajantha Mendis, Thisara Perera grabbed three wickets each instead of 11 and 29 runs respectively while PC de Silva and Suranga Lakmal bagged two wickets each for 29 and 30 runs respectively.Earlier, Sri Lanka faced debacle losing early three wickets for 83 runs.Then, Kumar Sangakkara and Dinesh Chandimal rescued their team from danger contributing together 74 runs in the fourth wicket stand before Chandimal was cleanly bowled out by Hamza Hotak when Sri Lanka’s total was 157 for the loss of four wickets.Kumar Sangakkara knocked a brilliant 76 from 102 balls featuring six boundaries and one over boundary while Angelo Mathews remained unbeaten with 45 off 41 balls with four fours. Besides, opener Kusal Perera and Dinesh Chandimal added 33 and 26 runs respectively to the Sri Lanka total.Mirwais Ashraf bagged a pair of wickets at the cost of 29 runs while Hamza Hotak, Shapoor Zadran and Dawlat Zadran got one wicket each conceding 43, 46 and 60 runs respectively.
