Lunch Afghanistan 198 and 251 for 7 (Jamal 9*, Naveed 0*, Jayasuriya 4-83) lead Sri Lanka 439 by 10 runs
Sri Lanka made substantial headway in the direction of closing down the Take a look at on the fourth morning, claiming six wickets to show Afghanistan’s lengthy tail.
In comparison with their toil on day three, Sri Lanka’s assault appeared rather more threatening after they bowled with the second new ball, taken 5 overs into the day. The left-arm spin of Prabath Jayasuriya was the largest beneficiary, with the ball now biting off a drying floor when he landed it on the exhausting, new seam. He claimed 4 wickets and by the tip of the session was creating possibilities nearly each over; Asitha Fernando and Kasun Rajitha took one every.
No Afghanistan batter actually prospered. Centurion Ibrahim Zadran added solely 13 to his in a single day rating earlier than being dismissed for 114. Rahmat Shah accomplished a 3rd profession fifty, however himself added solely eight. These two had shared a 108-run partnership to convey Afghanistan to inside hanging distance of the lead, however they started to crash so quickly in the direction of the tip of the session, hopes of setting Sri Lanka a testing goal waned dramatically.
They misplaced 5 wickets for 13 runs, both facet of wiping out their deficit. They went to lunch 10 runs in entrance, however with solely three wickets in hand.
It was Kasun Rajitha – who’s enjoying as a concussion substitute for Chamika Gunasekara – who made the primary incision, to finish the lengthy Ibrahim-Shah stand. In his first over with the second new ball, he angled one in to Shah, then straightened it barely off the seam, on a few fourth-stump line. Shah was pressured to play, and ended up offering a skinny edge by means of the wicketkeeper.
Jayasuriya then entered the fray. He had Ibrahim dropped by Dinesh Chandimal on the deep sq. leg fence on 109, however would flummox the batter not lengthy after. The ball now starting to take flip, Zadran performed for one which spun within the ninetieth over, however this one simply went on with the arm, whizzed between bat and pad, and clattered into off stump, ending Afghanistan’s greatest innings of the match to this point.
Hashmatullah Shahidi was out to at least one that did flip and took his outdoors edge, Qais Ahmad was caught superbly by Dhananjaya de Silva, who dived ahead at slip and intercepted the ball centimetres from the bottom, and Zia-ur-Rehman left a Jayasuriya supply that continued with the arm and crashed into off stump – the second time this match Jayasuriya claimed such a dismissal.
In between the Jayasuriya wickets, Asitha Fernando – one of the best of Sri Lanka’s seamers to this point this match – additionally added one to his wicket column. Bowling again of a size outdoors off stump, he had Ikram Alikhil edge one to second slip, the place Kusal Mendis additionally took a wonderful low catch diving ahead.
