Sri Lanka National Cricket Team vs Afghanistan National Cricket Team match scorecard: Full Stats

Afghanistan were 79 for 6. Their innings, on paper, looked finished before it had even reached the halfway mark of a 20-over match.

Then Mohammad Nabi walked out and hit 60 off just 22 balls, dragging Afghanistan to a total that at least looked respectable. It still wasn’t enough. This Sri Lanka National Cricket Team vs Afghanistan National Cricket Team match scorecard covers the full Asia Cup 2025 Group B clash in Abu Dhabi, with every meaningful stat from a match that swung dramatically in its middle overs before settling into a controlled Sri Lankan chase.

Match in 30 Seconds

Detail	Match information
Match	11th Match, Group B, Asia Cup 2025
Venue	Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Date	18 September 2025
Toss	Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat
Afghanistan score	169/8 in 20 overs
Sri Lanka score	171/4 in 18.4 overs
Result	Sri Lanka won by 6 wickets
Standout performer	Mohammad Nabi — 60 off 22 balls for Afghanistan
Tournament impact	Sri Lanka advanced into the Super 4s

The one-line story: Afghanistan collapsed to 79/6 before Mohammad Nabi’s extraordinary 60 off 22 balls rescued a defendable-looking total, but Kusal Mendis’s unbeaten 74 guided Sri Lanka to a comfortable 6-wicket win.

What people think is that a late rescue act to 169 automatically creates real pressure on the chasing side.

The reality here was different: Sri Lanka lost only four wickets in the entire chase and were never seriously troubled, finishing the job with more than an over to spare.

Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan Match Scorecard, Asia Cup 2025: Full Stats

Afghanistan’s innings: 169/8 in 20 overs

Batter	Runs	Balls	4s	6s	Strike rate	Dismissal
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk)	14	8	2	0	175.00	c Kusal Perera b Nuwan Thushara
Sediqullah Atal	18	14	2	1	128.57	b Nuwan Thushara
Karim Janat	1	3	0	0	33.33	b Nuwan Thushara
Ibrahim Zadran	24	27	0	1	88.89	c Chameera b Dunith Wellalage
Darwish Rasooli	9	16	0	0	56.25	c Kusal Perera b Chameera
Azmatullah Omarzai	6	4	1	0	150.00	b Shanaka
Mohammad Nabi	60	22	3	6	272.73	run out (Kusal Perera/Kusal Mendis)
Rashid Khan (c)	24	23	2	1	104.35	b Nuwan Thushara
Noor Ahmad	6	4	0	0	150.00	not out
Extras	7	—	—	—	—	5 lb, 1 w, 1 nb
Total	169/8	20 overs

Did not bat: Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi.

Fall of wickets: 26/1 (Gurbaz, 2.1), 32/2 (Karim Janat, 2.6), 40/3 (Sediqullah Atal, 4.5), 64/4 (Darwish Rasooli, 10.3), 71/5 (Azmatullah, 11.3), 79/6 (Ibrahim Zadran, 12.1), 114/7 (Rashid Khan, 17.1), 169/8 (Nabi, 20).

Sri Lanka bowling figures

Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Economy
Nuwan Thushara	4	0	18	4	4.50
Dushmantha Chameera	4	0	50	1	12.50
Dunith Wellalage	4	0	49	1	12.20
Dasun Shanaka	4	0	29	1	7.20
Wanindu Hasaranga	4	0	18	0	4.50

Sri Lanka’s innings: 171/4 in 18.4 overs

Batter	Runs	Balls	4s	6s	Strike rate	Dismissal
Pathum Nissanka	6	5	1	0	120.00	c Mujeeb b Azmatullah
Kusal Mendis (wk)	74	52	10	0	142.31	not out
Kamil Mishara	4	10	0	0	40.00	c Ibrahim Zadran b Nabi
Kusal Perera	28	20	3	0	140.00	c Gurbaz b Mujeeb
Charith Asalanka (c)	17	12	2	0	141.67	c Rashid Khan b Noor Ahmad
Kamindu Mendis	26	13	0	2	200.00	not out
Extras	16	—	—	—	—	1 lb, 15 w
Total	171/4	18.4 overs

Did not bat: Dasun Shanaka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dunith Wellalage, Dushmantha Chameera, Nuwan Thushara.

Fall of wickets: 22/1 (Pathum Nissanka, 2.2), 47/2 (Kamil Mishara, 5.2), 92/3 (Kusal Perera, 11.2), 119/4 (Charith Asalanka, 14.5).

Afghanistan bowling figures

Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets	Economy
Fazalhaq Farooqi	3	0	38	0	12.70
Mujeeb Ur Rahman	3.4	0	42	1	11.50
Azmatullah Omarzai	2	0	10	1	5.00
Mohammad Nabi	3	0	20	1	6.70
Rashid Khan (c)	4	0	23	0	5.80
Noor Ahmad	3	0	37	1	12.30

Powerplay scores and playing XIs

Team	Powerplay runs (overs 0.1-6)
Afghanistan	45
Sri Lanka	53

Read Also:- New Zealand National Cricket Team Vs Bangladesh National Cricket Team Match Scorecard

Sri Lanka Playing XI: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis (wk), Kamil Mishara, Kusal Perera, Charith Asalanka (c), Dasun Shanaka, Kamindu Mendis, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dunith Wellalage, Dushmantha Chameera, Nuwan Thushara.

Afghanistan Playing XI: Sediqullah Atal, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Darwish Rasooli, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Karim Janat, Rashid Khan (c), Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi.

Highlights and Key Moments

1. Afghanistan’s collapse to 79/6

Afghanistan lost their sixth wicket, Ibrahim Zadran, at just 79 runs in the 12th over. Wickets had fallen steadily from the second over onward Gurbaz, Karim Janat, Sediqullah Atal, Darwish Rasooli, and Azmatullah Omarzai all departed cheaply, leaving the innings in genuine disarray with more than half the overs still remaining.

What most people miss: a collapse this severe, this early, usually results in a total well below 150 in modern T20 cricket. The fact that Afghanistan still reached 169 says everything about what happened next, rather than anything about the quality of their top order’s approach on the day.

2. Nabi’s stunning 60 off 22 balls

Mohammad Nabi walked in with Afghanistan in genuine trouble and produced arguably the innings of the tournament to that point: 60 runs off just 22 balls, striking three fours and six sixes at a rate of 272.73. He added 35 for the seventh wicket with his captain, Rashid Khan, before being run out attempting a second run in the final over.

Counterintuitive point: an innings this explosive, arriving from 79/6, often gets remembered purely as a heroic rescue act. The more precise read is that Nabi’s assault raised Afghanistan’s total from a genuinely non-competitive range into merely a below-par one it changed the margin of an eventual defeat far more than it changed the actual outcome.

3. Kusal Mendis anchors a controlled chase

Kusal Mendis batted through almost the entire Sri Lankan innings, finishing unbeaten on 74 off 52 balls with 10 fours. He shared useful stands with Kusal Perera (28) and Charith Asalanka (17) before finishing the match alongside Kamindu Mendis, whose unbeaten 26 off just 13 balls, including two sixes, sealed the win with overs to spare.

This is where things go wrong for a bowling side that fought back with the bat: Afghanistan’s bowlers took four wickets across the chase, but none of them ever seriously threatened Sri Lanka’s required rate, because Kusal Mendis’s constant presence at the crease meant every dismissal simply brought in a fresh batter facing a comfortable equation rather than a genuine crisis.

4. Sri Lanka seal their spot in the Super 4s

The win, Sri Lanka’s second in Group B, confirmed their progression into the Super 4s stage of Asia Cup 2025, continuing their tournament campaign on a positive note.

Bold opinion: results like this a comfortable win secured after seeing off a genuine late scare from Nabi often matter more for a team’s confidence heading into a tougher knockout-adjacent stage than a routine, uncontested victory would. Sri Lanka’s bowlers were tested and briefly rattled, then their batting order answered comfortably; that combination is a better indicator of tournament readiness than an untroubled 40-run win would have been.

Player Performance Breakdown

Mohammad Nabi: the innings that nearly changed everything

Nabi’s 60 off 22 balls was built around a clean, uncomplicated approach: attack anything remotely hittable, given the situation his side found itself in. His strike rate of 272.73 was easily the highest of any recognised batter in the match.

Original observation: the specific value of Nabi’s innings lies less in the runs themselves and more in what it revealed about Afghanistan’s batting depth. A team with a genuine finisher capable of this kind of impact from a top-six collapse has a real safety net most sides lack the challenge for Afghanistan going forward is ensuring their top order doesn’t require that safety net quite so often.

Kusal Mendis: the calm center of Sri Lanka’s chase

Mendis’s unbeaten 74 off 52 balls, struck at 142.31, was built on control rather than explosive hitting ten fours, but no sixes, reflecting an innings focused on finding gaps and rotating strike rather than clearing the boundary.

Practical lesson for anchoring an innings during a run-chase: Mendis’s approach shows that a chase doesn’t always need a boundary-a-ball finisher to feel comfortable. His presence throughout the innings, batting from the second over to the very end, gave every partner license to play with less risk, because the chase’s foundation never wavered.

Nuwan Thushara: 4 wickets that shaped the whole match

Thushara’s figures of 4/18 from his four overs were the best bowling performance of the match by a clear margin. He dismissed Gurbaz, Sediqullah Atal, Karim Janat, and later Rashid Khan, directly driving Afghanistan’s early-innings collapse.

Common mistake in analysis: crediting Nabi’s rescue act for making the total respectable while underweighting the bowler who created the crisis Nabi had to rescue Afghanistan from in the first place. Without Thushara’s four wickets, Afghanistan’s innings likely never reaches the 79/6 low point that made Nabi’s intervention necessary at all.

Kusal Perera and Charith Asalanka: the support that mattered

Kusal Perera’s 28 off 20 and Charith Asalanka’s 17 off 12 both came at strike rates above 140, ensuring Sri Lanka’s required rate never climbed to a genuinely testing level even as wickets fell periodically through the middle overs.

What people think vs reality: in a comfortable chase, supporting contributions in the 15-30 run range are often dismissed as unremarkable. Here, both innings played a specific role in maintaining tempo around Mendis, ensuring the chase’s overall trajectory never stalled long enough for Afghanistan’s bowlers to build sustained pressure.

Analysis: Why 169 Wasn’t Enough

A total built on one rescue act, not sustained batting

What people think: any T20 total in the high 160s, especially one boosted by a late explosive innings, gives the bowling side a genuinely defendable platform.

Reality: Afghanistan’s total depended almost entirely on one batter’s 22-ball cameo. Their top six combined for just 72 runs from the first 12 overs before Nabi’s intervention a rate that, on its own, would have produced a total well below 130. The final score of 169 masked how fragile the innings genuinely was for most of its duration.

Sri Lanka’s chase was never seriously threatened

Sri Lanka lost only four wickets across the entire chase and completed it with more than an over to spare. At no point did the required rate climb to a level that forced genuinely risky batting from their order.

Bold opinion: the gap between “Afghanistan posted a competitive-looking 169” and “Sri Lanka were never really troubled” is the single most important, and most under-reported, storyline of this match. A raw scorecard makes the contest look closer than it actually was at almost every stage beyond Nabi’s brief burst.

What this result meant for the Super 4s race

This win confirmed Sri Lanka’s advancement into the Super 4s stage of Asia Cup 2025, extending their positive run in the group phase of the tournament.

Practical takeaway for reading group-stage results: a win this comfortable, despite conceding a late rally to a dangerous finisher like Nabi, should be read as a genuinely strong signal for a team’s tournament trajectory the bowling attack created the conditions for victory even when their best defensive plan was briefly disrupted.

Read Also:- Chennai Super Kings Vs Mumbai Indians Match Scorecard

Full Stats Reference, Records and Format Guardrail

Quick reference: key numbers from the match

Category	Afghanistan	Sri Lanka
Total	169/8 (20 overs)	171/4 (18.4 overs)
Highest individual score	Mohammad Nabi, 60 (22)	Kusal Mendis, 74* (52)
Best bowling figures	Rashid Khan, 4-0-23-0 (most economical)	Nuwan Thushara, 4/18
Powerplay score	45/?	53/1
Fifty-plus stands	None	None individually, but a controlled overall chase

Format and entity guardrail

Fixture	Correct context
Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan, 11th Match, Asia Cup 2025 (this article)	Senior men’s T20 tournament match — this article’s core scorecard
Sri Lanka A vs Afghanistan A, Tri-Series 2026	A completely different, development-level ODI competition
Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan, 1st ODI, 2024	A different bilateral series, format, and year

Do not present figures from the Sri Lanka A team Tri-Series 2026 or the 2024 bilateral ODI as if they describe this Asia Cup 2025 match. Each belongs to a separate competition, squad level, or year entirely.

Frequently Asked Questions