Sri Lanka were required to showcase a gutsy performance against Afghanistan on Tuesday as they terribly lost their previous game to New Zealand. Put to bat first, they went off the mark quite well as the opening duo of skipper Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Perera stitched a 92-run opening stand.

However, the Afghans turned the game in the middle overs; credit goes to senior all-rounder and former captain Mohammad Nabi, who scalped 3 wickets in a single over and kept the Lankans reeling.

Despite the dismissal of Karunaratne, Sri Lanka were in a situation from where they could dictate the terms of the game with 144/1 on the board. But it was the 22nd over when Nabi trapped three of the opponent batsmen, turning the match on his head.

Here’s how it happened:

Nabi began the carnage with rattling the stumps of Lahiru Thirimanne (25) on the second ball of the over. He further put pressure on the new man in – Kusal Mendis – by bringing in a fielder at the slips.

Mendis edged the first ball towards the slip but repeated the same mistake on the next delivery and ended up getting caught by Rahmat Shah.

Next was veteran Angelo Mathews who lost his wicket in a similar fashion; trying to play the cut shot and edging it to Shah.

After’s Nabi caused the havoc, Hamid Hassan had Dhananjaya de Silva caught behind the stumps for nought by Mohammad Shahzad to leave Sri Lanka shell-shocked. The Lankans were in even deeper trouble when Thisara Perera was run out for two, leaving them 159-6.

Earlier, Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib won the toss and put Sri Lanka into bat, hoping to take advantage of the favourable conditions for bowlers in the Welsh capital.