Farooqi hits his straps to help keep Sri Lanka under wraps

Afghanistan's wins are often headlined by their spinners. Rashid Khan bamboozling the opposition with his legbreaks and googlies. Mujeeb Ur Rahman hurrying up batters with his carrom ball. Mohammad Nabi striking with his subtle variations.

Following the same script, they beat England and Pakistan in this World Cup. However, their seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka in Pune was different; it was set up by a fast bowler. Fazalhaq Farooqi, the left-arm seamer, picked up 4 for 34 to help Afghanistan bowl out Sri Lanka for a below-par 241. They were his best figures in ODIs and the second-best for Afghanistan in World Cups.

Coming into the tournament, Farooqi was Afghanistan's lead seamer. But in the first four games, he picked up just two wickets while leaking 6.32 runs per over. So when it came to picking just one seamer on a spin-friendly Chennai track against Pakistan, the team management went with Naveen-ul-Haq.

Farooqi's place went to left-arm wristspinner Noor Ahmad, who emerged as Afghanistan's best bowler on the day, picking up the wickets of Abdullah Shafique, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan.

In Pune, the surface generally favours seamers. So Afghanistan decided to leave out Noor and bring back Farooqi. But pitch-reading is not an exact science, and there was hardly any swing or seam movement available.

Farooqi, however, has got excellent skills. During last year's IPL, at a Sunrisers Hyderabad nets session, he left even Dale Steyn spellbound with his wrist position, and what he could do with it. So even on this Pune pitch, which looked tailor-made for batting, Farooqi got the ball to move just enough to trouble the Sri Lanka batters.

To Dimuth Karunaratne, he largely bowled in the channel outside off stump. Karunaratne has made his career opening the innings in Test cricket against some of the best exponents of seam and swing bowling. He attempted a couple of cuts but couldn't connect. Then, in his third over, Farooqi targeted the stumps. Karunaratne had dispatched the previous delivery, full and wide outside off, through the covers for four. This time Farooqi pulled his length back and got the ball to go on with the angle. Karunaratne looked to drive down the ground, got beaten on the inside edge and was lbw.

"For the first few balls, I was looking for the swing," Farooqi said after being named the Player of the Match. "But when I saw there was no swing, I tried to keep it simple, hit the right areas and not concede too many boundaries. That was the plan for the whole spell and that's how I got the success."

Against right-handers, too, Farooqi was clear with his plan. With the new ball, he bowled 19 balls to right-hand batters. Eighteen of those were delivered from around the wicket. Kusal Mendis, in particular, found him difficult to negotiate and was beaten twice on the outside edge.

Farooqi finished his spell with figures of 1 for 21 from five overs, of which 19 balls were dots. He was well supported by Mujeeb, who was equally frugal. As a result, despite losing only one wicket, Sri Lanka managed just 41 in the first ten overs - by far their least productive powerplay this World Cup.

Afghanistan rely heavily on Farooqi for early breakthroughs, and the seamer has delivered more often than not. In 2023, he has picked up 12 wickets in the powerplay, at a strike rate of 36. The rest of the Afghanistan bowlers have seven at 84.

But on Monday, it was his second and third spells that made a bigger impact. Charith Asalanka has been a solid No. 5 for Sri Lanka this year and was once again looking to revive the innings. Farooqi used his variations to make sure Afghanistan stayed ahead in the game.

In the 39th over, he banged one in really short to Asalanka. It was bowled at 130kph but took a long time to reach the batter. By the time it did, Asalanka was already through his attempted pull and ended up toe-ending the ball to mid-off.

That left Sri Lanka on 180 for 6, and Angelo Mathews with the tail with more than 11 overs to go in the innings. Mathews and Maheesh Theekshana kept fighting and added 45 off 42 balls for the eighth wicket. During that partnership, it looked like Sri Lanka would cross 250. But Farooqi was once again in their way. He got rid of Theekshana with a pinpoint yorker that made a mess of the woodwork. In his next over, Farooqi took the pace off, and Mathews couldn't generate enough power to clear long-on.

During the chase, the Afghanistan batters were clinical and made sure there was no Sri Lankan comeback.

Afghanistan's next match is against Netherlands, in Lucknow. If it's a black-soil pitch, they may once again consider playing Noor. Leaving out Farooqi, though, will not be an easy call this time.