Sri Lanka huff and puff to beat Zimbabwe

Janith Liyanage stands and delivers for Sri Lanka during his match winning knock of 95

• Match winning knock of 95 by Liyanage

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

To what levels Sri Lanka’s international cricket standards have dropped was exhibited at the R. Premadasa International Cricket Stadium yesterday when they had to huff and puff before beating Zimbabwe by two wickets with an over to spare to win the second ODI and go one-up in the three-match series.

Sri Lankan bowlers did a marvellous job to dismiss Zimbabwe for 208 in 44.4 overs, but the batsmen nearly made a mess of that fine performance slipping to 112-6 before limping past the post to make 211-8 largely due to a courageous batting effort by Player of the Match Janith Liyanage. Playing in only his second ODI, Liyanage almost single-handedly carried his team to victory with a plucky knock of 95 off 127 balls inclusive of six fours and two sixes

What Sri Lanka needed was for someone to stay with Liyanage, but apart from Maheesh Theekshana (18) who helped him add 56 for the seventh wicket, none stayed long enough to see the side through.

Liyanage was looking good to make his maiden ODI hundred, but trying to keep Sri Lanka ahead on the par score with a slight drizzle in place, lost his wicket with the score at 172 with 37 still required for victory.

However, Dushmantha Chameera (18* off 25 balls) and Jeffrey Vandersay (19* off 18 balls) saved Sri Lanka the blushes by putting together an unbroken run-a-ball stand of 39 for the ninth wicket to take the team over the line, much to the relief of the sparse crowd present.

Zimbabwe could consider themselves rather unlucky not to have won this contest as they did everything within their means to win, but luck was not with them. Their left-arm seamer Richard Ngarava had Sri Lanka in all sorts of trouble with his late swing that saw him pick up his maiden five-fer in ODIs (5/32). Giving him excellent support was spinner Sikander Raza who took two wickets for 32, but it was not to be Zimbabwe’s day.

Despite losing opener Tinashe Kamunuhukamwe for a second successive golden duck to pacie Dilshan Madushanka, Zimbabwe recovered to 182-4, courtesy a splendid knock of 82 from skipper Craig Ervine who paced his 102-ball innings out nicely striking 9 fours and one six before falling to a stunning catch by Sadeera Samarawickrama at backward point. Ervine had associated himself in two half-century stands of 60 with Joylord Gumbie (30) and 53 with Milton Shumba (26).

Ervine’s dismissal at 182 proved to be the turning point of the game as Zimbabwe lost their last six wickets for 26 runs without a fight with spinners Theekshana and Vandersay getting into the act and cleaning up the lower order and tail without much fuss. Theekshana with two top order wickets finished the innings off with two further scalps to end with figures of 4/31, while Vandersay and Chameera picked up two apiece.    

For Sri Lanka, their top and middle order batting continued to be their Achilles heel. Against a side like Zimbabwe who failed to make it to the 2023 Cricket World Cup and the upcoming 2024 T20 World Cup losing to teams like Uganda and Namibia, Sri Lanka should have beaten them quite convincingly. But what we saw yesterday was a poor display of batsmanship that does not augur well for the future.

The third and final ODI takes place at the same venue on Thursday.

Zimbabwe pacie Richard Ngarava successfully appeals on his way to career best figures of 5/32