Despite being the host of T20 World Cup 2026, Sri Lanka cricket team was out of the title race even before the semi-finals. With two consecutive defeats in the Super-8 round, his claim ended there. But despite this, Sri Lanka had to play one last match before going out of the tournament, in which the fans were hopeful that the team would play against Pakistan to save its honor and perform strongly, but the kind of performance given by its bowlers and especially the fielders, surprised everyone.
In this match played in Pallekele on the evening of Saturday 28th February, Pakistan batted first. Pakistani team needed to win this match by a big margin to reach the semi-finals. In such a situation, for Pakistan Sahibzada Farhan And the opening pair of Fakhar Zaman did explosive batting and made a partnership of 176 runs. On the basis of this partnership, Pakistan made a big score of 212 runs, which could have been enough for the necessary victory.
Gave 4 lives to Fakhar-Sahibzada
But while Farhan and Fakhar batted brilliantly for Pakistan, the Sri Lankan bowlers and fielders also provided full help. In a way, the bowlers were giving easy opportunities to the batsmen to score shots by repeatedly bowling full toss or overpitch balls. The fielders were also giving full support in this. Not only did Pakistan give extra runs by dropping many straight balls, but Sri Lankan players also dropped a total of 4 easy catches one after the other.
pic.twitter.com/W4knaD1Tqq https://t.co/KauxTpTtqE
тАФ sourav (@Purplepatch22) February 28, 2026
The first catch out of this was missed by Fakhar Zaman, when he was on just 19 runs. He finally played a explosive inning of 84 runs in just 42 balls. After this, Sahibzada Farhan dropped 3 catches in just 6 balls in the 15th and 16th overs. At this time Farhan was on the scores of 75, 76 and 82 runs. Farhan finally scored 100 runs in just 60 balls and took Pakistan to the score of 212 runs.
Missed wicket opportunity by not taking DRS
Not only this, once the Sri Lankan team did not even appeal. This happened on the last ball of the 11th over, when Mahish Teekshana was bowling. Fakhar Zaman’s bat took the edge and the keeper took the catch and also made a mild appeal. But despite this the Sri Lankan captain did not take DRS on this. Replays clearly showed that the ball had hit the bat and Fakhar would have been out on 46 runs at that time.
Questions started being raised on Sri Lanka
Such performance of the Sri Lankan team surprised everyone. While the team’s fans looked disappointed, questions were being raised on social media about the team’s intentions whether it was deliberately playing like this so that the Pakistani team could reach the semi-finals. These questions started arising because when Pakistan reaches the semi-finals, that match has to be played in Sri Lanka only. In such a situation, Sri Lanka can get a good earning opportunity from this.
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