SLL vs AFGP

That brings us to the end of our coverage for this Asian Legend's League contest. The eliminator is done and dusted and we move to Qualifier 1 slated to be played tomorrow. Like always it was a pleasure to be part of Sportskeeda's commentary for today's game. Up until the next time, this is myself (Arya Sekhar Chakraborty) signing off also on behalf of my fellow commentator and good mate Lavil Saldanha. Goodnight fellas. 

Thisara Perera is the Player of the Match, here is what he had to say: First of all its an awesome feeling when you are in a winning in a big game like this. Coming back to the six sixes, I struck five sixes and a four during my ODI career but hitting six sixes is special. When I jump to the field, I don't think about others. I always stay like this in pressure situation. I felt I could hit my hundred in the last over. Dream came true for me as I scored my 2nd T20 century. An awesome feeling to be honest. So I had to thank Mewan, I told him to play normal game and rotate the strike. Whatever the situation don't give up. Me and Dilshan told Mewan that you are the anchor and we guys can play around you. We were one batter shorter so we wanted to bat first and put up a good score to put them under pressure. We had only five batters, all others were bowlers.

Asghar Afghan (captain, Afghanistan Pathans): Congratulations to them, Thisara played very well. We could have chased this down but then this is cricket. Enjoyed the tournament, the ground was very well. Hopefully we come here again to play

Sri Lanka Lions won by 26 runs

Thisara Perera 108*(36) | Vikum Sanjaya 3/32(4)
Asghar Afghan 70(31) | Munis Ansari 2/40(4)

The Afghanistan Pathans on the back of a splendid knock from the blade of Asghar Afghan ran the Sri Lanka Lions close but the score of 230 proved to be a bit too much for the Pathana as the Lions won the match by runs and will now play the winners of the first qualifier which will be held tomorrow. Mausib Khan provided a blistering start with a 16 run opening over which paved the way for the other batters to follow the template. 

However they lost the plot in the second over itself, losing two quick wickets of Mausib and Shoaib Khan to put them on the backfoot. Ayan Khan was the next man in and tried to complement Shabir Noori but the rate kept climbing, putting further pressure on the rest of the batters coming in. It was the captain Asghar Afghan who turned the game on its head with a blistering knock of 70 which came in just 31 deliveries. 

He batted superbly and gave a realistic chance to the Pathans to chase this down. He smashed as many as eight sixes during his knock and brought the equation down to 42 required off the last three overs. However his wicket in the 18th over turned out to be the final nail in the coffin as the lower order couldn't quite cope up with the required rate. Eventually the Sri Lanka Lions won the match by 26 runs with Vikum Sanjaya finishing as the leading wicket taker with figures of 3/32.

19.6 Upul Indrasiri to Shezad Phathan, FOUR! DOESN'T MATTER, SRI LANKAN LIONS WIN! Full and on the line of the leg stump, Shezad gets an inside edge that races down to deep fine leg for a boundary to end the chase. Sri Lankan Lions win by 26 runs and advance into Qualifier 2!

19.5 Upul Indrasiri to Shezad Phathan, back of a length delivery outside the off stump. Shezad gets a leading edge that drops safe. They take a brace

19.1 Upul Indrasiri to Farman Khan, BOWLED! Length delivery on the line of the off stump, Farman comes down the track and looks to send it over the boundary but misses and has his off stump pegged back

That's a tremendous over from Lahiru Gamage, just three runs coming off that over and with 34 runs required off 6 deliveries, it is safe to say that the Sri Lanka Lions have pocketed the game.