(ESPNCRICINFO) – One time is a shock. Two times, and the second to beat hosts Sri Lanka at their own game, is Zimbabwe. Led by their canny bowling, Zimbabwe pulled Sri Lanka back from a flying start to keep them to 178 on a sluggish Premadasa track.
Their opener Brian Bennett, quickest scorer in their history, dropped anchor, stayed unbeaten like his team, and Sikandar Raza, Ryan Burl and Tadiwanashe Marumani did all the damage from the other end to seal their second-highest successful T20I chase.
Sri Lanka’s innings had three neat divisions: first 29 balls for 54 for 0, next 72 for 82 for 4 and then a finishing kick of 42 for 3 off the last 19 balls. Zimbabwe went Bennett and non-Bennett. Bennett scored 63 off 48; the other three combined for 102 off 64 balls. Raza was the decisive hand: 45 off 26 after the asking rate had gone past 11.
Nissanka continues good form
Fresh off a match-winning hundred, Pathum Nissanka got off the blocks running along with Kusal Perera. In the company of Kusal Mendis, he took Sri Lanka past 50 in the fifth over. Zimbabwe did try to deny them pace by bowling two overs of spin in the first four, but Raza and Wellington Masakadza were not as accurate and menacing as some of the more established spinners.
Zimbabwe pull things back
Once Blessing Muzarabani got rid of Perera with a slower short ball at the end of the fifth over, the game changed. Kusal Mendis played a strange innings of little intent and 14 off 20, during which Nissanka went past him as the most prolific run-getter for Sri Lanka in T20Is. By the time Mendis was dragged out of his crease by a ripping leg-break from Burl, Sri Lanka had fallen to 100 for 2 in 12.1 overs.
With even Pavan Rathnayake struggling at the start of his innings, Nissanka felt obligated to hit out and was out on the reverse sweep off Graeme Cremer, who returned figures of 4-0-27-2. His second victim was Kamindu Mendis courtesy a gentle push for a return catch.
Rathnayake provides a finishing kick
It was only in the end that Sri Lanka found some momentum with Rathnayake finding a way to score 44 off 25. He hit the first six of the innings at the end of the 17th over, and went to hit the only other six of the innings off Brad Evans in the 19th over. Dunith Wellalage scored 14 off the last over to carry some momentum into the defence.
