Pathum Nissanka scored his 7th ODI hundred, stiched a 90-run partnership with skipper Charith Asalanka for the 4th wicket as Sri Lanka had to fight all the way to win by 5 wickets with 3 balls to spare, sending a clear message to world cricket that Zimbabwe are a fine white ball outfit especially in their own backyard. Despite dropping Sikanda Raza at wide mid on, Nissanka made up for that folly with a fantastic 122 off 136 balls with 16 fours with Charith Asalanka playing a captain’s innings of 71 off 61 with 7 fours to see Sri Lanka cross the given target with 3 balls to spare.
Put into bat, the home team built excellent partnerships to set Sri Lanka a target of 278 runs with 3 noteworthy partnerships as the Sri Lankan seamers were guilty of bowling too many wides, leg side deliveries on a batter friendly pitch at Harare on Monday.
Brian Bennett and Ben Curren made 55 runs for the first wicket before Bennett got himself cleaned up for 21 runs playing a cross a back of a length delivery by Dushmantha Chameera.
Ben Curren threw his wicket again after following his 70 runs in the first ODI dismissed for 79 after his 61 run 2nd wicket stand with Brendon Taylor.
Asitha Fernando, who was wayward in his first spell, struck 2 big blows as he dismissed Zimbabwe Skipper for 20 and Ben Curren in the same over as Zimbabwe sunk to 176 for 5 wickets in the 37th over.
It was once again Sikanda Raza who came to the rescue of the Zimbabwean distress. He joined wicket keeper Clive Madande for a valuable 76 run partnership for the 6th wicket and remained unbeaten on 59 off 55 deliveries with Madande contributing 36 and help Zimbabwe to a total of 277 in their 50 overs losing 7 wickets. This score, no doubt, was competitive.
Dushmantha Chameera 3 for 52 , Asitha Fernando 2 for 67, a shade expensive by his standard, got Sri Lanka the vital breakthrough. Sadly, Theekshana went wicketless yet again, conceeded 45 runs in his 10 over spell with 1 maiden.
Charith only used himself and Janith Liyanage to fill in the 5th bowler challenge, and they conceeded 47 runs with 1 scalp, a performance much better than that of the first ODI that cost Sri lanka 80 runs.
Sri Lanka sure did have a challenge in hand chasing 278 as a target .
The right handed Pathum Nissanka rose to the challenge by a powerful knock. Sri Lanka lost Sadeera Samarawickrema for 34 with the score on 146, but Charith Asalanka joined Pathum, and the pair stiched a 90-run partnership for the 4th wicket, that put Zimbabwe on the back foot.
Sadly, Samarawickrema batting at number 4 has not made that slot his own , nor has Sri Lanka found a reliable partner to open with Pathum Nissanka so far.
Selectors must now head hunt for an opener because Nuwindu Fernando, too, has massive technical faults with his footwork to open batting at this level.
Pathum Nissanka and Charith Asalanka could not stay till the end to take SriLanka over the finish line, but Janith Liyanage and Kamindu Mendis did.
Sri Lanka won by 5 wickets with 3 balls to spare and won the series 2 nil , Pathum Nissanka was adjudicated as player of the match and player of the tournament for his total contribution of 195 runs in 2 innings.
Zimbabwe bowling was good, but Sri Lankan batters used their experience in rotating strike and stealing singles and twos with a calculated mindset.
Brad Evans, Sean Williams, were impressive with seam and spin for the home team. Just Zimbabwe is a very com CTpetitive team. I wish they had more opportunities to play against the top teams in the world.