3.11pm Sri Lanka cruise to the target with so much ease that they still had more than 15 overs to secure the bonus point. Eventually, it's an eight-wicket win with 153 balls remaining as Sri Lanka take the bonus point with them. A bad day for the hosts began with the toss and their dire situation kept worsening from there. In the end, 154 was nowhere near enough. Dhananja de Silva made his highest ODI score, Dickwella and Kusal Perera made handy contributions en route to a rather comfortable victory.

Presentation time.

Dhananjaya de Silva is the Man of the Match: "Low-scoring game so I wanted to attack in the first few overs. Gloomy condition so ball was moving around in the first few overs."

Upul Tharanga: "Good feeling. Everyone did really well. The bowlers stuck to the plan and bowled in the right areas. They knew the wicket will do something."

Graeme Cremer: " In losing the toss, we knew it was going to be tough. too many soft wickets. It was not a 150 wicket, if we could have grounded to 220, who knows? We have to come back better, we are better than this. The bowlers toiled hard."

24.3

Panyangara to Kusal Mendis, 2 runs

125 kph, that will be it. Full delivery on off and middle, Mendis looked to go straight but skewed the ball off the inside edge, the ball finds the gap at midwicket and the two runs required is completed.

Lakshitha: "Sri Lanka's plan should be to prepare a solid batting line up for the South Africa tour. And they should have a solid number 3 batsman for that. Kusal Mendis is the front running candidate but the team management keeps on playing fringe players in that position for some peculiar reason."

24.2

Panyangara to Dhananjaya, 1 run

good length on off, pushed back past the bowler for a run to mid-off who dives to his right

Could be the last over. Not even half the innings

24.1

•

Panyangara to Dhananjaya, no run

slower offcutter on off, squirted to midwicket who dives to his left, tumbles over

Over24

7 runs

SL 152/2CRR: 6.33 RRR: 0.11

BKG Mendis 10 (7b 1x4 1x6)DM de Silva 77 (73b 12x4)

AG Cremer0/25 (5)

23.6

Cremer to Kusal Mendis, SIX runs

that's a poor ball. Drops short on off, Mendis picks the length early, goes deep in his crease and pulls emphatically over midwicket. Just clears the boundary. Clean strike

23.5

•

Cremer to Kusal Mendis, no run

84 kph, pushed away towards cover with the spin

23.4

•

Cremer to Kusal Mendis, no run

86 kph, flat delivery outside off, outside-halved to point

23.3

•

Cremer to Kusal Mendis, no run

tossed up on leg and middle, driven to cover

23.2

Cremer to Dhananjaya, 1 run

overpitched on off, driven to long-off with the spin. De Silva gets to his highest ODI score

23.1

•

Cremer to Dhananjaya, no run

shortish and wide outside off, a flayed cut to point

Over23

5 runs, 1 wicket

SL 145/2CRR: 6.30 RRR: 0.37

BKG Mendis 4 (3b 1x4)DM de Silva 76 (71b 12x4)

T Panyangara1/34 (7)

22.6

•

Panyangara to Kusal Mendis, no run

short delivery outside off, Mendis sways away

22.5

Panyangara to Kusal Mendis, FOUR runs

126 kph, a half-volley on off. Mendis drills his drive past his partner. Mid-on puts in a futile dive to his left. Four to the long-on boundary

22.4

•

Panyangara to Kusal Mendis, no run

full and straight, 125 kph. Defends to mid-on

DC: "@Akseli Lovely bowling does not equal a RR of 7 on a track where you got bowled out for 150, luck or not. Just been totally outplayed in all departments."

22.3

Panyangara to Dhananjaya, 1 run

yorker on off, pushed down to long-on

Kusal Mendis.

22.2

Panyangara to Dickwella, OUT

and taken! Dickwella doesn't get fifty. Short of a length on off or just outside off. Dickwella shimmies down, plays a cross-bat hoick, takes a thick leading edge which flies down to third man. The fielder runs in and gets underneath the ball with a slide and takes a chest-high catch on the ground.

Niroshan Dickwella c Mumba b Panyangara 41 (38b 6x4 0x6 49m) SR: 107.89

22.1

•

Panyangara to Dickwella, no run

full delivery outside off, 123 kph. Steered to point where Williams dives to his left to stop runs

Over22

3 runs

SL 140/1CRR: 6.36 RRR: 0.53

DM de Silva 75 (70b 12x4)N Dickwella 41 (36b 6x4)

AG Cremer0/18 (4)

21.6

•

Cremer to Dhananjaya, no run

quicker outside off, 85 kph. Blocked back

21.5

•

Cremer to Dhananjaya, no run

flat and wide outside off, de Silva defends again

21.4

•

Cremer to Dhananjaya, no run

tossed up on off, bat close to pad as de Silva defends

Akseli: "I am still positive and I believe Zimbabwe will win 1 of their remaining 3 matches. Some lovely bowling with no luck. Some rash stupid shots that you can develop. Zimbabwe has many young guns who will get better quickly. They need to concentrate game after game. Forget about the loss and concentrate on what you're good at. Sooner than later all your practice will be useful. Trust in your methods, your principles. All we Zim supporters need is belief. We can get back to those golden ages!"

21.3

Cremer to Dickwella, 1 run

use of the feet, converts the flight into a full toss and pushes to long-on

21.2

Cremer to Dhananjaya, 1 run

flat, short, straight. Pushed to deep midwicket. De Silva walks the run

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Best performances - batters

Spike GraphWagon Zone

DM de Silva

78 runs (75)

12 fours0 six