Sri Lanka steamroll Zimbabwe on green track
Sent in to bat on a green and slightly damp Harare surface, Zimbabwe lasted only 41.3 overs, leaving Sri Lanka a target of 155 that they chased down breezily courtesy Dhananjaya de Silva's unbeat
Sent in to bat on a green and slightly damp Harare surface, Zimbabwe lasted only 41.3 overs, leaving Sri Lanka a target of 155 that they chased down breezily courtesy Dhananjaya de Silva's unbeat
Scorer: Chandan Duorah | Commentator: Nikhil Kalro
3.11pm Sri Lanka cruise to the target with so much ease that they still had more than 15 overs to secure the bonus point. Eventually, it's an eight-wicket win with 153 balls remaining as Sri Lanka take the bonus point with them. A bad day for the hosts began with the toss and their dire situation kept worsening from there. In the end, 154 was nowhere near enough. Dhananja de Silva made his highest ODI score, Dickwella and Kusal Perera made handy contributions en route to a rather comfortable victory.
Presentation time.
Dhananjaya de Silva is the Man of the Match: "Low-scoring game so I wanted to attack in the first few overs. Gloomy condition so ball was moving around in the first few overs."
Upul Tharanga: "Good feeling. Everyone did really well. The bowlers stuck to the plan and bowled in the right areas. They knew the wicket will do something."
Graeme Cremer: " In losing the toss, we knew it was going to be tough. too many soft wickets. It was not a 150 wicket, if we could have grounded to 220, who knows? We have to come back better, we are better than this. The bowlers toiled hard."
Lakshitha: "Sri Lanka's plan should be to prepare a solid batting line up for the South Africa tour. And they should have a solid number 3 batsman for that. Kusal Mendis is the front running candidate but the team management keeps on playing fringe players in that position for some peculiar reason."
Could be the last over. Not even half the innings
Upul Tharanga will have to lead a side shorn of many of its heavyweights. Zimbabwe are exactly the sort of banana skin he won't want to slip up on
Zimbabwe coach Heath Streak was aggrieved with his side's body language and their inability to be 'positive and aggressive' in a crushing eight-wicket defeat against Sri Lanka in the tri-series opener
Plays of the day from the first match of the Zimbabwe tri-series, between the hosts and Sri Lanka
Sent in to bat on a green and slightly damp Harare surface, Zimbabwe lasted only 41.3 overs, leaving Sri Lanka a target of 155 that they chased down breezily courtesy Dhananjaya de Silva's unbeat