(Cricket News) Afghanistan made a stunning comeback against Sri Lanka on Sunday, reaching 199 for 1 at the stumps after losing the first innings 241 runs to Naveed Zadran’s four-fer and Ibrahim Zadran’s century. The visitors dominated the third day of play at SSC in Colombo, cutting the deficit to just 42 runs.

After starting the day on 410 for 6, the hosts could only muster 29 more runs than their overnight total. Naveed Zadran gave Sadeer Samarawickrama an outside edge on a moving-away delivery, and he also cleaned up Prabath Jayasuriya.

Soon after, Chamika Gunasekara, who had been hit at the back of the helmet by one of Zadran’s deliveries, left the field in discomfort. Asitha Fernando was beaten for pace as Nijat Masood rocked the timber, bundled out Sri Lanka for 439.

Afghanistan started their second innings cautiously, having a huge deficit to overcome. The openers, Ibrahim Zadran and Noor Ali Zadran put up a 106-run stand that took almost three hours.

They were very cautious with their strokeplay, but in the second over of the pacer’s innings, just three overs before lunch, Ibrahim broke loose, hitting three consecutive boundaries off full deliveries from Kasun Rajitha, who had earlier replaced Gunasekara as the replacement for concussions.

When Noor Ali threw his bat out to a full delivery from Vishva Fernando, only to find the thick outside edge running away for a four, Afghanistan waited more than ten overs to find their first boundary.

His partner followed suit two overs later off the same bowler, with the same outcome.
By the time Ibrahim Zadran reached his fifty, Sri Lanka had already burned two reviews and dropped him once.

The pair battered out the post-lunch session safely but were parted shortly after Tea when Noor Ali was trapped leg before by Asitha.

However, Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmat Shah kept the bowlers under pressure, and Sri Lanka was unable to rally as the pair batted out the remainder of the final session, even managing to raise the scoring rate. After being dropped again on sixty-three, Ibrahim Zadran scored his first Test century in the final over before stumps.

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