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Dimuth Karunaratne
Eighth day of cricketing action in the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2023 saw Sri Lanka cruise to comfortable wins over Ireland.
Sri Lanka outshined Ireland in all three departments. With this result, Sri Lanka make it to Super Six stage of the Qualifier while Ireland are out of the World Cup race.
Despite early fall of openers Paul Stirling (6) and Andy McBrine (17), Ireland tried to keep with the asking rate and finished their first powerplay at 56/2. Wanindu Hasaranga, Sri Lanka’s premier performer with ball in the Qualifier, struck in his very first over to remove the Ireland skipper, Andrew Balbirnie. Dasun Shanaka followed this up with the wicket of Lorcan Tucker, and the Ireland chase was in peril.
Harry Tector (33) and Curtis Campher (39) provided last hope to Ireland but their dismissals by the 20-over mark left the Men in Green on the verge of a massive defeat. Ireland’s tail took the aggressive route but couldn’t survive the guile of Hasaranga who finished with 5/79.
This was his third consecutive five-wicket haul in ODIs. With this, Hasaranga equals the world record for most consecutive five-fors in Men’s ODIs with Waqar Younis.
Sri Lanka hit the accelerator early on and didn’t let up the pressure against Ireland. This was their second score in excess of 300 in the tournament.
Positive batting from Pathum Nissanka and Dimuth Karunaratne helped Sri Lanka get off to a flyer. The duo went run-a-ball for their stand of 48 before Nissanka fell to a mistimed pull against the incoming Barry McCarthy. The very next ball, McCarthy got one to angle in and trapped Kusal Mendis lbw for a duck. Sri Lanka were 58 for two at the end of first powerplay. Sadeera Samara-wickrama and Karunaratne kept their foot on the pedal as Sri Lanka’s scoring rate went above six runs an over. Karunaratne brought up his fifty during this stand. This was his third consecutive half-century in the tournament.
Samarawickrama brought up a half-century of his own in the 22nd over, even as the duo brought up their century stand of merely 90 balls.
Karunaratne-Samarawickrama continued going great guns after the 25-over mark, even as Ireland didn’t help their case with poor work in the field, including a couple of dropped catches. By the time, Gareth Delany had accounted for Samarawickrama (82) in the 36th over, Sri Lanka were 216/3. Karunaratne brought up his maiden ODI century in the very next over but couldn’t continue for long. He was cleaned up by Mark Adair for 103.
Charith Asalanka (38) and Dhananjaya de Silva (42*) played important knocks towards the end, but Sri Lanka’s tail failed to wag. They fell way short of 350, which seemed like a strong possibility while Karunaratne and Samarawickrama were at the crease. Andrew Balbirnie called it right at the toss and bowled first at the Queens Sports Club in a must-win match to keep their dreams of India 2023 alive.
