Posts in category: Sports

Raza’s total effort was in futile as Shanaka and Mathews assisted SL in pursuing an insignificant goal.

Sri Lanka 144 for 7 (Mathews 46, Shanaka 26*, Raza 3-13) beat Zimbabwe 143 for 5 (Raza 62, Theekshana 2-16) by three wickets

• For the second occasion on this trip, Sri Lanka broke through to reach their objective by hitting the winning runs with the final delivery, depriving a determined Zimbabwean defense of a modest target. After a chase in which Sri Lanka had been struggling to stay afloat, the innings ended with a top-edged four off the bat of No. 9 Dushmantha Chameera and a chip into the legside outfield.
• In his first T20 International since nearly three years, Angelo Mathews played the most impressive Sri Lankan innings, scoring 46 off 38 to push the game to the limit. Dasun Shanaka hit significant boundaries and remained undefeated with 26 off 18.
• Their work surpassed the excellent all-around efforts of Zimbabwe skipper Sikandar Raza. Raza had amassed the most runs and best statistics in the game after hitting 62 off 42 with the bat and then claiming 3 for 13 with the ball. But just as they had been defeated in the closing stages of the second ODI earlier in the tour, Zimbabwe were left looking obviously devastated once more.

The final over

With 61 runs off of 36 balls and no recognized hitters remaining, the seasoned duo of Mathews and Shanaka joined forces at the end of the 14th over. As a result, they had played wisely, setting clear boundaries and limiting the requirement with thoughtfully chosen restrictions.

• Sri Lanka required 12 runs in the last over, which was delivered by the frugal Blessing Muzarabani. The spinner was punished for missing his yorker when Mathews dug deep in his crease and clattered Muzarabani down the ground for a one-bounce four on the opening delivery. Following that, anticipating Muzarabani to take a short pass, Mathews remained low and executed a lovely finish that split the keeper and the short third for an additional four.

• With just six balls left to spare, Muzarabani would bowl a dot ball, forcing Mathews to hole out to deep midwicket in an attempt to score the game-winning six.

What transpired thereafter was mostly coincidental. Muzarabani went after Chameera’s body, and when the batsman swiped at the ball, it took a top edge and flew past the wicketkeeper. The final ball was a fairly full one that Chameera chipped to deep midwicket, and the hitters skittered through the final two.

Raza rocks it with the bat

After the powerplay, Raza came to the crease, took a few balls to settle in, and then started to open his shoulders. His first significant contribution came in the ninth over when he hit three fours off Chameera, all of them square of the wicket. Then, as the spinners worked (he was barely 31 off 27 balls at one point), he was meticulous during a 45-run third-wicket stand with Sean Williams, before reverting to an aggressive approach after Williams left. He smoked Nuwan Thushara down the ground to surpass 50, slog-swept Wanindu Hasaranga over the deep midwicket boundary, and scored 31 runs off the final 15 balls he faced.

and with the ball

When Raza entered the bowl, Sri Lanka was already in a panic, having lost wickets to Richard Ngarava, Wellington Masakadza, and Blessing Muzarabani during the powerplay. The remainder of the top order was decked by his superb spell. With a quick offbreak first ball, he clipped the top of Sadeera Samarawickrama’s off stump. In his final over, he then sent a sliding offbreak into Wanindu Hasaranga’s stumps after Charith Asalanka was caught off a leading edge. Only one boundary had been given up by him in his four overs.

Sri Lanka’s spinners keep a lid on Zimbabwe’s scoring

Though Zimbabwe lost two powerplay wickets, the Raza-Williams partnership had brought them to a decent position in the middle overs. After taking those powerplay wickets, Maheesh Theekshana let up just 11 runs in his final two overs. Wanindu Hasaranga, the new captain, bowled all through the middle and concluded with fantastic figures of 2 for 19.

The superb ground fielding of Sri Lanka also contributed to limiting the scoring.