Asia Cup: Sri Lanka win toss, elect to bat first against Afghanistan

Lahore: Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first against Afghanistan in their last group stage match, here at Gaddafi Stadium on Tuesday.

Both the teams need to win the match to qualify for the Group 4 stage but it will be a formidable task for Afghanistan to win it with the big margin. Both the teams are playing with the same playing XI.

After winning the toss, Sri Lanka skipper Dhasun Shanaka said: “It’s always handy to put runs on the board batting first, takes out the pressure of runs. We have a good bowling lineup and we would love to defend it.”

“Honestly we wanted to bowl first because NRR is a big factor for us so we wanted to chase. We will try our best to take good decisions and play positively,” said Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi.

Playing XIs:

Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis(w), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dasun Shanaka(c), Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Kasun Rajitha, Matheesha Pathirana

Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Karim Janat, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi

(IANS)