'Oh dear': Three Sri Lankans misfield the same ball

Sri Lanka can count themselves lucky after managing to defeat Afghanistan despite producing a comedy of errors with the bat and in the field.

The 1996 Cricket World Cup winners collapsed from 1-144 to 201 all out before knocking their opponents over for 152 in a rain-affected match in Cardiff.

While their shocking batting effort was the talk of the tournament, some things just weren’t going their way in the field.

Afghanistan’s Dawlat Zadran was the beneficiary of three misfields after hitting a soft bunt back down the pitch.

First it was the bowler Nuwan Pradeep sticking a hand out and missing the ball completely.

Then it was Lasith Malinga sliding and watching it roll past him.

“Oopsy!” the commentator said first.

Angelo Mathews was the last fielder involved but his chase was too slow to stop the ball before the boundary, even if he gave it a red-hot crack with a slide of his own.

“Oh dear, oh dear,” the caller continued.

“Just when you thought they have it under control and it’s all ok and they’re going to be fine – they’ve given Afghanistan hope here.”

Another commentator excused Malinga but not Mathews.

“It’s very poor. Very poor from Lasith Malinga there. Of course he lost his footing, he slipped. It’s hard to criticise that,” he said.

“The ball beat Angelo Mathews as well but Mathews could have done better – going with the wrong hand there!”

The misfields were just a blip, however, as Pradeep recorded career-best figures in the victory and Malinga ended a personal run of 21 ODI defeats.

Spinner makes Cricket World Cup history

Mohammad Nabi wrote his name into the record books with an incredible three-wicket over against Sri Lanka.

The Afghanistan spinner sparked an astonishing collapse at Sophia Gardens as Sri Lanka fell from 1-144 to 201 all out.

Nabi had Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis and Angelo Mathews all out in the 22nd over, becoming the first spinner in Cricket World Cup history to dismiss three top six batsmen in one over.

The only other bowlers to achieve that feat were pacemen: Chaminda Vaas and Brett Lee in 2003 and Farveez Maharoof in 2007.

However, Sri Lanka managed to recover from the collapse to seal a 34-run win – their first victory at the tournament.

Chasing a revised target of 187 from a maximum 41 overs, Afghanistan slumped from 0-34 to 5-57 then battled back through a 64-run stand between Gulbadin Naib (23) and Najibullah Zadran (43).

Sri Lanka again responded and took the final five wickets for 31 runs, with recalled seamer Nuwan Pradeep taking 4-31.

Malinga delivered the finishing blows with two trademark yorkers.

with AAP