Zimbabwe vs Sri Lanka, 3rd T20I at Harare, ZIM vs SL, Sep 07 2025 - Ball by Ball Commentary

Well a grandstand finale for this tour has seen Sri Lanka come out as eventual winners. Zimbabwe fought for every inch throughout this tour, and they will certainly count themselves unlucky to have come away with just the solitary win across five matches on tour. That said, Sri Lanka today showed glimpses of what they're capable of at their very best, and it will hold them in good stead heading into the Asia Cup later this month. Zimbabwe meanwhile are set to play Namibia next. But until then, on behalf of the team, this is Madushka signing out!

Charith Asalanka: [best pitch of the series?] yes of course. Because we achieved chasing over 190, not easy after yesterday's defeat. Hard to comeback like this. The pitch looked good in the powerplay. We just focused on minimising the boundaries and keeping it under 200. [Mishara and Perera?] Really impressed by that performance. It's not easy to carry on 10-11 runs an over through middle overs. But happy with our character after yesterday's performance, it's something the best teams tend to do."

Player of the Series goes to Dushmantha Chameera for his 8 wickets across three games; "I'm very happy with the win and the series. All the bowlers I felt did well on these wickets. I hadn't played for 6 months before the Bangladesh series, and before that I played some club cricket which helped. We have a good set of fast bowlers now as well. First time playing in Zimbabwe, I enjoyed bowling here."

Player of the Match,/b> goes to Kamil Mishara: It's a privilege to win a game for my country, I just feel very good. There was pressure of course, but the coaching staff just told me to play my normal game. I just wanted to get into my rhythm and then played my normal game."

Sikandar Raza: "Certainly one of those targets batting first the sports club hasn't seen too many times, so we were very pleased with what we put on the board. Overall I thought the batting unit clicked, and the intent and the shots we played today was certainly something to hold our heads high. Thought 191 was a very good score on that wicket. [Bowling?] Credit where it's due, Sri Lanka batted really well. Certainly the bowling unit including myself, will hold our hands up and say we weren't up to the mark today. They batted well but we could have done better. [Positives] The standard of cricket, whether with bat or ball. Here and there we've had a few bad moments, but that shouldn't take away the other good things we've done."

Time then for the post-match presentation...

Murtaza Mustafa: "Lion will be always a Lion. Srilanka on their day can bite you and bite you hard. So be careful of a Lion that was bundled out for 80...What a come back!!! ..Here we come Asia Cup Dubai UAE..."

4.39pm Well Sri Lanka then with as comprehensive a win as you'd like, led by an unbeaten 73 off 43 from Kamil Mishara! He played three T20Is a couple of years ago, but after this performance you suspect he'll be more of mainstay this time around. At the halfway point of this game, it looked like Zimbabwe had put forward an above par target of 192, but Sri Lanka's middle order finally came to the fore building on yet another solid start from Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis. Kusal Perera, who was dropped for the second game, offered the ideal foil of experience and aggression to Mishara as the pair rarely looked trouble in running down their target with 14 deliveries to spare.

Just 6 needed now, as this pair have made this chase look even more straightforward than Zimbabwe's just 24 hours prior.

Azeem Buhary: "@Madushka, Looking at all the SL selection related comments today, You are not giving up on Chamika. Given his history of inconsistence perfomance, May we know why you believe he deserves another opportunity?" --- He's topped or been near the top of every metric for a seam-bowling allrounder domestically in the past couple of years, since being dropped. SL owes it to themselves to see if he can replicate that on the internationl stage.

Azweer : "The game and the series moving away from Zimbabwe. Total suddenly looks some 15 to 20 runs short. " --- 38/4 at the death could prove to be the difference.

Akindu: "Nissanka, mendis, Mishara, Perera, Charith, Kamindu, Dasun, Hasaranga, Theekshana, Chameera, Thushara/BinuraReckon Srilankas found their XI for Asia cup?" --- Close, but I would really like to see Chamika given a run at some point.