SL leaves Australia on brink of exit, England enter Super 8, Afghans win

Sri Lanka’s Pathum Nissanka scored the first century of the 2026 T20 World Cup on Monday to put his side into the Super Eights and leave Australia on the brink of elimination.

Nissanka scored 100 not out off 52 balls with five sixes and 10 fours as Sri Lanka, chasing Australia’s 181, reached 184-2 with two overs to spare in Kandy to win by eight wickets.

A victory by Zimbabwe over Ireland in Group B on Tuesday, or against Sri Lanka on Thursday, would eliminate the 2021 champions.

If Zimbabwe lose both, Australia will need to beat Oman in their final match on Friday by a big margin to get through on net run rate.

Nissanka was involved in a 97-run stand off 66 balls with Kusal Mendis for the second wicket with the wicketkeeper-batsman posting his third fifty in the competition.

Nissanka became the first Sri Lankan to score two hundreds in T20 internationals.

After Mendis’s dismissal, Nissanka and Pavan Rathnayake put on 76 off 34 balls to see Sri Lanka to victory.

Nissanka played some glorious cover drives off the spinners and played some elegant flicks against the quicks.

Sri Lanka came into the World Cup after a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of England, but have gained momentum and have won all three games so far.

Australia’s campaign has been plagued by injuries.

Their captain Mitchell Marsh, who missed the first two games, returned and gave them a rollicking start by scoring 54.

Marsh and Travis Head (56) scored 104 runs off 51 balls for the first wicket.

Meanwhile, England survived a scare to qualify for the Super Eights at the T20 World Cup on Monday as Italy’s swashbuckling chase of 203 fell agonisingly short in a pulsating match in Kolkata.

Will Jacks scored the fastest T20 World Cup fifty for England as they made 202-7, their highest total of the tournament so far, and eventually won by 24 runs.

Italy, the lowest-ranked team in the tournament, were on track to pull off a sensational upset when Grant Stewart and Jaspreet Singh blasted 21 off Adil Rashid’s final over, the 18th of the chase, including three sixes.

That left 30 needed off 12 balls, but it proved too much and Italy were all out off the last ball of the match for 178.

Most of England’s batsmen got good starts after Brook won the toss and chose to bat.

But only Jacks capitalised as Italy kept chipping away with regular wickets. He reached his fifty off 21 balls to beat Eoin Morgan’s 25-ball effort against the West Indies in Kandy in 2012.

Jacks took the game by the scruff of the neck after England stuttered to 105-5 in the 13th over.

He put on 54 in 25 balls with Sam Curran (25) for the sixth wicket and 35 in 16 balls with Jamie Overton (15) for the seventh.

His fourth six, which took him to his fifty, also saw England pass 200 for the first time in the tournament, with Jacks finishing 53 not out off 22 balls.

The win guaranteed England’s passage to the Super Eights along with the already-qualified West Indies from Group C, South Africa and India.

Italy got off to a terrible start in reply as Jofra Archer took two wickets in the first over.

Jos Buttler then pulled off one of the catches of the tournament.

Italy captain Harry Manenti ramped Jamie Overton only for keeper Buttler to leap and take a stunning one-handed grab at full stretch.

Italy rebuilt brilliantly from 22-3, with Ben Manenti racing to 60 off 25 balls before he was caught by Tom Banton at long-on off Jacks.

Manenti smashed six sixes and four fours in a stand of 92 with Justin Mosca for the fourth wicket.

When Mosca was caught in the deep by Banton off Rashid to make it 135-5 in the 15th over, it seemed Italy’s hopes of pulling off only the third successful 200-plus chase in the history of the T20 World Cup might be over.

But Stewart had other ideas, blasting 45 off 23 balls to keep Italy in the hunt.

Earlier, Afghanistan clung to their fading hopes of making the Super Eight stage of the Twenty20 World Cup after Azmatullah Omarzai’s all-round brilliance fashioned their five-wicket victory against the United Arab ‌Emirates in a Group D match on Monday. The outcome sent group leaders South Africa, ​who have six ⁠points from three games, into the Super Eight alongside defending champions India ‌and two-time winners West Indies.

New ‌Zealand, with four points ahead of their final group match against bottom-placed Canada on Tuesday, look primed to claim the second Super Eight spot from Group D.

Sohaib Khan (68) led a spirited recovery to power ‌UAE to a respectable 160-9 after being put in to bat. Omarzai, who claimed 4-15 with ⁠the ball, returned to hammer 40 not out off 21 balls to secure 2024 semi-finalists Afghanistan’s first win in this year’s tournament with four balls to spare.

Earlier, TV umpire Paul Reiffel found himself in the thick of ⁠action in the first four overs after Rashid won the toss and elected to field at Arun Jaitley Stadium.

UAE opener Aryansh Sharma edged the first ball from Omarzai but it was unclear if wicketkeeper Rahmanullah ​Gurbaz had taken ‌a clean catch. Reiffel went through umpteen replays before giving the benefit of the doubt ‌to the batter.

Three balls later, Reiffel was tasked with a similar job and this time the official decided that Aryansh was indeed out, caught behind for a duck.

Off-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman trapped UAE captain Muhammad Waseem ‌lbw for 10, ‌a decision which Reiffel upheld after the batter ⁠reviewed it.

In the fourth over, Sohaib was initially given lbw to Mujeeb but ‌he survived after replays confirmed the ball would have narrowly missed the leg stump.

The reprieve allowed Sohaib to combine with Alishan Sharafu (40) in an 84-run stand to ⁠steady the UAE innings.

Omarzai ended Sohaib’s fine knock, which included four sixes and six fours.

Afghanistan ​lost their in-form opener Gurbaz in the first over but first Ibrahim Zadran (53) and then Darwish Rasooli (33) kept them in the hunt.

Omarzai finally sealed Afghanistan’s win with a ⁠four off Junaid Siddique.

Agencies