COLOMBO, Feb 5: Left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya finished with eight wickets in the match to lead Sri Lanka to an emphatic 10-wicket win in the only Test against Afghanistan, wrapping up the victory on the fourth day on Monday.
Angelo Mathews (141) and Dinesh Chandimal (107) formed Sri Lanka’s backbone in the fist innings which helped them score 439 runs and take a 241 run lead.
Afghanistan made 198 in the first innings and was bowled out for 296 in the second, giving Sri Lanka a target of 56 runs to win. Dimuth Karunaratne (32 not out) and Nishan Madushka (22 not out) knocked the target easily in the eighth over.
Earlier, the tourists crumbled from their strong start to reach 252-7 at lunch, having started the day on 199-1.
Ibrahim Zadran made 114 for Afghanistan, his maiden Test century.
Afghanistan started the day needing 42 runs to cover the deficit and hoping to build a fighting score, after Ibrahim Zadran and Noor Ali Zadran (47) had shared a century stand, their highest for the first wicket.
After Noor Ali’s departure, Ibrahim had put on an unbeaten 93 runs for the second wicket with Rahmat Shah. But inexperienced tourists failed to build on that momentum.
“I think it is the lack of experience in Test cricket and also not having a lot of opportunity to play with the red ball,” Afghan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi said. “We are new in Test cricket and it is a learning process for us. I hope we will learn from this.”
This was only Afghanistan’s eighth Test match in the six years since being admitted to the elite league in 2018, and the first against Sri Lanka.
“We had bowled 75 overs and they had scored 200 runs and our target was to bowl without conceding many runs until the new ball came,” Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva said. “Once the new ball came we were able to get wickets at a bunch.”
Fast bowler Kasun Rajitha, who was called up as a concussion substitute for Chamika Gunasekara, had the first breakthrough after Sri Lanka took the second new ball as he had Shah caught behind by Sadeera Samarawickrama for 54 runs. It was Shah’s second half-century of the match, having top-scored with 91 runs in the fist innings.
Jayasuriya took 5-107, his seventh five-wicket haul and finished the game with 8-174 on a batting friendly pitch. (AP)
