SL vs AFG: Matheesha Pathirana smashes Lasith Malinga’s five-year-old record in T20Is

Young Sri Lanka right-arm fast bowler Matheesha Pathirana broke a five-year-record of legendary pacer Lasith Malinga in the T20I format. During the recent T20I series against Afghanistan, he broke the record for the most wickets taken by a Sri Lankan fast bowler in a single bilateral T20I series.

In three games, the 21-year-old claimed eight wickets at an economy rate of 8. Meanwhile, Malinga set a record in 2019 with seven wickets from three games versus New Zealand. Both Dushmantha Chameera (2022 against Australia) and Nuwan Pradeep (2019 against Pakistan) had also claimed seven wickets each.

Pathirana finished with figures of 2/42 in the third and final T20I against Afghanistan at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium on February 21. He first got rid of star Afghan all-rounder Azamatullah Omarzai, and then he removed Karim Janat. However, despite winning the first two games of the series, Sri Lanka lost the final match by a margin of three runs. 

Also read: Who is Azmatullah Omarzai? Everything you need to know about the talented Afghanistan all-rounder

Afghanistan beat Sri Lanka by three runs

Speaking of the game, Afghanistan won the toss and opted to bat first. The visitors made a flying start with Hazratullah Zazai and Rahmanullah Gurbaz stitching an 88-run partnership for the opening wicket. Zazai missed a half-century for just five runs, while Gurbaz went on to score a gritty 43-ball 70-run knock. The wicketkeeper-batter's knock was studded with seven boundaries and one maximum. Afghanistan went on to post a mammoth 209 runs. Meanwhile, for Sri Lanka, Matheesha Pathirana and Akila Dananjaya claimed two wickets.

Also read: Rahmanullah Gurbaz's batting is like a slight copy of MS Dhoni: Sunil Gavaskar

Later Pathum Nissanka (60) and Kamindu Mendis (65*) scored half-centuries during the chase. However, the home team failed to cross the line as they fell short by just three runs. For Afghanistan, Mohammad Nabi claimed two wickets for 35 runs. Fareed Ahmad, Noor Ahmad, and Qais Ahmad contributed with one scalp each for the Ibrahim Zadran-led side.