Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka, 1st ODI Review: Sri Lanka cruise to a simple 8 wicket win

Sri Lanka opened their Tri-series campaign with a simple 8 win over the hosts Zimbabwe. Batting first, the hosts were in the danger of losing all their wickets under 100 runs with the scoreboard reading 50/6 at one stage before Peter Moor (47) and skipper Graeme Cremer (31*) rescued them from registering the unwanted feat for the first time in their history. Though their efforts saved Zimbabwe from a major embarrassment, it was not enough to put up a respectable target on the scoreboard as they were able to manage just 154 eventually. In response, Sri Lanka completed the chase easily in 24.3 overs.

Zimbabwe’s day did not begin well. They were sent in to bat by Upul Tharanga on a damp Harare pitch and had a pretty disastrous start to the match as right arm fast bowler Suranga Lakmal snapped both Brian Chari and Craig Ervine in one single over The third over of the match saw and Ervine depart in the space of three balls. Chari’s attempt to drive the ball only ended in him edging it to second slip who took an appreciable diving catch to complete the dismissal.

Two balls later, their opening match of the tri-series got worse as Ervine also nicked off to second slip and departed for a duck. Things got worse in the following over as Sikander Raza too gave away his wicket. In the meantime, opener Chibhabha hit a couple of good stroke but that didn’t stop Sri Lanka from causing more damage. Sean Williams, who survived a chance early, was not reprieved a second time as Sachith Pathirana had him stumped. Chibhabha tried arresting the slide but failed after getting trapped LBW by Pradeep.

The match experienced some entertainment only after wicket-keeper Moor and Cremer joined together and put up a quick 55 runs stand for the 7th wicket and take the Zimbabwean total past the 100 run mark. Donald Tiripano’s 19 and some slogging from Panyangara took the team total past 150 runs mark before Asela Gunaratne put an end to their innings with the wicket of last man Panyangara.

It was a collective bowling effort led by fast bowlers Suranga Lakmal (2/19), Nuwan Kulasekara (2/23), and Nuwan Pradeep (2/21). Spinner Sachith Pathirana also contributed with 1/44. But, among all the Lankan bowlers, it was all-rounder Asela Gunaratne, who was on his debut, who finished as the most successful bowler, picking up three lower-order wickets with his medium-paced off-cutters.

The Lankan chase was rallied by Dhananjaya de Silva’s unbeaten 78 runs knock. Niroshan Dickwella’s supportive 41 runs which came off 38 balls. After starting off well and building a 56 run stand for the opening wicket, Kusal Perera lost his wicket to Chibhabha to Zimbabwe their first success. Sri Lankan’s intention was clear finish the match as quickly as possible. De Silva had that in mind and along with Dickwella smoothly took his team to a very easy win. The latter was unlucky to lose his wicket just when 15 was required but De Silva completed the job in style to finish the match for Sri Lanka with bonus points.

Brief Scores:

Zimbabwe: 154 all out (Peter Moor 47; Asela Gunaratne 3/21)

Sri Lanka: 155/2 (Dhanajaya de Silva 78; Chibhabha 1/18)

Man of the match: Dhanajaya de Silva