Zimbabwe cricket team stunned Srilankans as they successfully chased down the 317 runs target becoming the first team ever to chase 300+ target in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat first in Galle Stadium, Sri Lanka. Srilankans didn't had the best of the starts and lost their first wicket for just 16 runs in the 5th over of the innings. But soon the srilankan batsmen controlled the situation and started hitting the ball crisply. Riding on the fifties from Gunathilaka, B Mendis and Tharanga Sri Lanka scored 316 runs from their 50 overs.
Zimbabwe started the huge chase with not the start they would have wished to go past the Sri Lanka's score. They lost the important wicket of Masakadza with just 12 runs on the board. They soon lost the second and were in dire states with 46 for 2. Then came Sean Williams to the crease to company Mire who was there from the start. Both of them held their nerves and started moving along nicely and scored at nice rate. Mire was batting crisply and scored boundaries with some lovely shots. He went on to make his century and scored 112 runs from just 96 balls with 14 fours before getting out on team score of 207 runs in 33th over. With another 110 runs to win the match they still had a job in their hands. Williams was then joined by Sikandar Raza. They partnership didn't go for long and Williams got out for well made 65 off 69 balls. Then Waller walked in to bat at no 6 for Zimbabwe. It seemed like Srilankans have got control of the game and will win the match from there. But sloppy bowling, poor fielding didn't helped their cause and with the batting heroics from Raza (67 off 56) and Waller (40 off 29) Zimbabwe easily chased down the target and completed the record chase in 47.4 overs with Raza hitting a six over long on.
This will be recorded as a glorious day in Zimbabwe's cricket history but will go down as a dreadful one for Srilankan Cricket.
- Navdeep Sharma
It was an amazing match...
ReplyDeleteYes indeed. Huge day for Zimbabwean cricket. Winning the match against test playing nation and winning chasing the huge target makes it even bigger.
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