It was a story of so near, yet so far for Afghanistan as a middle-order collapse prevented them from pulling an upset over Sri Lanka in their second match in the Cricket World Cup.

Having restricted Sri Lanka to 201, Afghanistan lost by 34 runs in a game that was shortened to 41 overs due to rain.

Skipper Gulbadin Naib felt that his team had fallen short in all departments in the loss but was particularly hard on his batsmen.

“Start of the day, we didn’t bowl in good areas and lost momentum from there. They got to 100 in no time. At one point, I thought they would get to 300 but Nabi bowled really well,” he said after the loss.

“The target wasn’t that tough, especially considering how we have been preparing recently as a chasing side. We need improvement in the batting department, need to learn to stitch small partnerships, especially against such quality bowling.

“At the start of the day, it was cloudy and I expected it to be the same throughout. We could have batted better, played straighter and watched the ball better,” he said.

Sri Lanka skipper Dimuth Karunaratne was a relieved man after the win but was quick to make his displeasure clear with the team’s batting effort which saw them collapse dramatically from a position of 144-1.

“We had a good start after a long time but suddenly, we lost a couple of wickets and were on the back foot. That’s the negative part but otherwise, the bowling and fielding was really good. After losing the first game, it’s not easy to keep your mind positive,” Karunaratne stated.

“Our batting needs to improve a bit but the bowlers did really well. We also need to work on our middle overs batting a bit,” he concluded.