AFG vs SL Asia Cup
Reflexes
- Afghanistan was victorious in the first match of the Asian Cup
- beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets
- The Afghanistan team reached the top of the points table
AFG vs SL, Controversy: The 2022 Asia Cup kicked off with the match between Sri Lanka and Afghanistan on Saturday. In this Group B match, Afghanistan won a one-sided victory. The Afghanistan team led by Mohammad Nabi dominated the Sri Lankan team from the start. Afghanistan kept the pressure on five-time champions Sri Lanka from the start and gave them no chance to recover. While the team’s performance disappointed the Sri Lankan fans, there were also questions about the refereeing.
Farooqui delivered double blows to Sri Lanka in the first over
In fact, in this match played between the two teams, the Sri Lankan team lost the toss and came out to bat first. But his start was very poor and he lost all 3 of his main wickets in the first three overs. Afghanistan’s left-arm fast bowler Fazlhaq Farooqui gave Sri Lanka double strikes in the first over as he dismissed Kushal Mendis and Aslanka.
Nishanka capture controversy
Following this, in the third over of the innings, Gurbaz caught Sri Lankan batsman Pathum Nishanka behind the wicket on Naveen-ul-Haq’s last ball. But the umpire on the field declared that the batsman was not out. In this DRS was taken from the side of Afghanistan. The third umpire then saw an ultra-advantage on replays and struck out the batter.
Coach and players expressed surprise
However, this decision by the third referee did not sit well with the Sri Lankan coach, the players and the fans. The fans said there was no contact between the ball and the bat. Following this, fans also took their anger out on social media.
After giving the verdict, the TV referee said that I have found that there has been a slight contact between the ball and the bat, there has been some movement, so nothing concrete was seen. After this, the Sri Lankan team was unable to recover from these three initial setbacks until the very end and was reduced to a score of 105 runs. Afghanistan later achieved Sri Lanka’s small goal of 106 runs for the loss of 2 wickets in the 11th.