Afghanistan scored 128 runs for the loss of two wickets in 26 overs. It's safe to say that a 308-run target is on the way to victory. But cricket is a game of uncertainty. 143 to 153 runs - Afghanistan lost the match and the series by a huge margin, losing 8 wickets in just 10 runs.

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium. The Lankans did not start well. Two openers Avishka Fernando and Pathum Nissanka departed as soon as 40 runs were added to the scorecard. However, Kusal Mendis and Sadeera Samarawickrama formed a big pair for the second wicket. 

Mendis and Sadeera combined for 103 runs off 113 balls. Sadeera departed first after scoring half a century. He scored 52 runs off 61 balls. Mendis was dismissed by Azmatullah Omarzai in the next over. Mendis scored 61 runs off 65 balls.

Then Charith Asalanka and Janith Liyanage took the charge for Sri Lanka. They added 111 runs off 98 balls. Liyanage was dismissed by Noor Ahmad after scoring a half-century. 50 runs off 48 balls came from his bat. Asalanka single-handedly led the team the rest of the way with Wanindu Hasaranga.

A pair of 50 runs came in the sixth wicket. Hasaranga's contribution was 14 runs from 13 balls. Hasaranga got out on the last ball of the innings. And Asalanka remained unbeaten on 97 runs.

Sri Lanka collected 308 runs after losing six wickets in the allotted 50 overs. For Afghanistan, Omarzai took three wickets and Farooqi, Noor, and Qais got one each.

Ibrahim Zadran made a great start to respond. However, Rahmanullah Gurbaz fell victim to Asitha Fernando for 8 runs off 20 balls. Afghanistan lost their first wicket by 31 runs. Ibrahim and Rahmat Shah kept the team on the road to victory by making a pair of 97 runs for the second wicket. Fernando also broke this pair of 121 balls by dismissing Ibrahim. Ibrahim scored 54 runs off 76 balls.

Rahmat departed at the team’s 143 runs. Then he could not imagine what was going to happen in a while! Rahmat scored 63 runs off 69 balls. No other batter has touched double figures since then. The runs of the last eight batters were 9, 3, 1, 4, 0, 1, 0, 0* respectively. Hashmatullah Shahidi, Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil, Gulbadin Naib all failed.

143 to 153 – Afghanistan lost 8 wickets within just 10 runs. As a result, Afghans lost the match by a huge margin of 155 runs. Also, the visiting Afghanistan lost the three-match ODI series with one match in hand by 2-0.

For Sri Lanka, Wanindu Hasaranga took four wickets and Dilshan Madushanka and Asitha Fernando got two wickets each.