NEW DELHI: Hashmatullah Shahidi, the captain of Afghanistan, expressed his immense pride in his team's performance despite the heart-wrenching two-run loss to Sri Lanka that eliminated them from the Asia Cup in Lahore on Tuesday.
Afghanistan needed to chase down a challenging target of 292 runs set by Sri Lanka in 37.1 overs to secure a spot in the Super4s, but their run rate proved to be a deciding factor.
The veteran Mohammad Nabi, who scored a blazing 65 off just 32 balls, brought them tantalisingly close to a historic victory with the fastest half-century ever recorded by an Afghanistan batter in ODIs.
In the end, Afghanistan came excruciatingly close, falling short by a mere two runs as they were bowled out for 289 in 37.4 overs.
"Very disappointed about it. We fought well, we gave our 100 per cent. Proud of the team for they way we played, the way we batted. I think in the last couple of years we played good cricket in the ODI format also," Shahidi said.
"We are still learning a lot. We had a lot of positives in this tournament. We are very near to the World Cup, what we did wrong here we will learn and be better for World Cup. Our crowd is always supporting us. We are thankful to them.
"We tried tour best to give something back to them today, we feel sorry for them," he added.
Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka was relieved that they somehow found a way to win.
"It's a tough one, very hard to defend such a total. Nabi played an outstanding innings which almost took away the game from us. We found a way to win," he said.
(With PTI inputs)
