We knew if Dasun batted the 20 overs we would win: Bhanuka

 The Agony and the Ecstasy: Australian captain Aaron Finch watches Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka celebrate his team’s incredible win in the third and final T20I at Pallekele

• We hate losing but at the end of the day it was a brilliant innings by Shanaka: Stoinis
• World record 59 in just 3 overs by Sri Lanka

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka’s T20I captain Dasun Shanaka under the pump for the series of defeats his team has suffered in recent times came in for high praise from teammate Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis for the incredible innings he played in the third and final T20I to change the course of a match that seemed as good as lost into a winning one, much to the delight of the packed Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Saturday.

Sri Lanka chasing Australia’s challenging score of 176-5, were down in the dumps at 108-6 in the 16th over and the match had looked to be going much the same way as the previous two, with Sri Lanka's middle order flailing after a promising start from the top order. Sri Lanka faced a near impossible task of scoring 69 off the last 26 balls. 

It was then that Shanaka decided to take charge of the situation his side was up against and produce one of the finest match-winning knocks in T20I cricket smashing a 25-ball half century (54*) to carry his team over the line with a ball to spare and deprive Australia, the T20 world champs of a series sweep of the three matches. Australia won the series 2-1.

Thanks to the Shanaka blitz Sri Lanka scored 59 off the final three overs to win the game, which was the most by any team surpassing the previous record of 56.  What made the innings all the more astonishing is that it came out of nowhere and caught the Australians on the wrong foot to which they simply had no answers.

It was Shanaka’s fourth fifty in T20I cricket. Whereas his previous three had ended in defeats for his team, this one was special because it came at a time when Sri Lanka were desperate for a win having won only one of their previous 10 T20I matches prior to this in the calendar year.“It was a special innings. We know that he is a match winner,” said teammate Bhanuka Rajapakasa at the post-match media conference. “If you take Dasun’s stats he has won three to four matches, it is not easy to score in every match in a T20. 

“Our plan is if it is your day you have to go and play a big innings. He played a special innings and won the match for us. Even though he had scored only three runs off 11 balls and we were under some kind of pressure, we knew if Dasun bats the 20 overs we will win with an over to spare because he has a big talent to hit those sixes.”

Where Australia’s bowling simply went off the rails was when Shanaka took on their most successful and miserly bowler Josh Hazlewood who’s previous two overs had cost only three runs and clobbered him for 22 runs in the 18th over. 18 runs then came off the 19th over bowled by Jhye Richardson and 19 off the final over bowled by Kane Richardson that sealed Sri Lanka’s sensational win.

“We hate losing but at the end of the day it was a brilliant innings by Shanaka. It was great for the crowd, and it is good for Sri Lanka cricket as well,” said Australia’s Marcus Stoinis.

On teammate Hazlewood’s costly 18th over that saw 22 runs being hit, Stoinis said: “We got a little bit ahead of the game and ahead of ourselves. For a second the first 16 overs went really well and that’s what happens in T20 cricket, someone plays one of the best innings they have played for their career and hats off. Hazlewood’s had a brilliant season here and is just coming off a brilliant IPL as well. That’s part of T20 cricket and well done to them.”

Rajapaksa said the win would give the team a great deal of confidence for the five-match ODI series that starts at Pallekele on 14 June.

“We play every match with the intention of winning. We have won most of our matches at Pallekele where there was a small difference in the wicket compared to the R Premadasa Stadium. To defeat the World Cup champions will bring us a lot of confidence going into the five ODIs. Then we have the Asia Cup and T20 World Cup. We need to make a few minor changes in the team line-up and once we get that right we will be able to continue the momentum and start winning consistently.”