Sri Lanka show they are not finished

Zimbabwe 256-8 (50 overs, K.Meth 91, G.Balance 53); Sri Lanka 259-2 (47.2 overs, S.de Zoysa retired hurt 63, D.Cooray 53 not out, D.Karunaratne 53, H.Fernando 52 not out). Sri Lanka won by eight wickets.

Hosts Sri Lanka showed they are not finished with this ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup just yet.

They beat Zimbabwe by eight wickets with 16 balls in hand in the Super League play-off semi-final at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) to set up a meeting with Bangladesh on Saturday.

And if Sri Lanka win that match they will be able to call themselves the fifth-ranked team in the tournament, which would be some consolation for a failure to get past the Super League quarter-finals in their own country.

Zimbabwe made 256-8, their best score of this competition, thanks to 91 from Keegan Meth, 53 from Gary Balance and a brutal 30 in only 19 deliveries from Ryan Higgins.

But Sri Lanka chased down that apparently testing target with relative ease after an excellent opening stand of 114 between stand-in captain Sameera de Zoysa (63) and Dimuth Karunaratne (53).

De Zoysa, leading the side in the absence of Angelo Mathews - ruled out of the rest of the tournament because of thigh and back injuries - had to retire hurt with cramp but his top-order team mates ensured his good work was not wasted.

Hans Fernando (52 not out) and Dilhan Cooray (53 not out) applied the finishing touches to the win with an unbroken stand of 112 for the third wicket.

De Zoysa faced 79 balls and hit seven fours in a 111-minute stay at the crease and it was a gutsy effort from the left-handed wicketkeeper after his previous two innings had both been ducks.

Despite his retirement, De Zoysa is expected to be fit for Saturday's match, also at the SSC.

Zimbabwe's bowling and fielding, so often their saving grace in this tournament, was a major disappointment for them when it came to defending their total and with Sri Lanka's batsmen running well between the wickets the target was always in range.

Only Graeme Cremer (1-41) enjoyed any success with the ball with the other wicket falling to a run-out as Zimbabwe captain Sean Williams tried seven bowlers to try and break the batsmen's rhythm.

Karunaratne stroked eight fours in 66 balls while Fernando (56 balls, six fours) and Cooray (56 balls, four fours and a glorious six over extra cover) looked in excellent form.

Sri Lanka's batting was the good news story for the home side. The bad news was their fielding which was, at times, ragged.

Meth was dropped at third man by Ashan Priyanjara when he had scored just 18 while Balance should have been run out on 40 only to be reprieved when a throw to the bowler's end was not gathered cleanly.

Reprieved, the Zimbabwe duo added 131 for the third wicket, their side's best stand for any wicket in the tournament.

Meth faced just 93 balls in compiling his runs and batted for 121 minutes, hitting 12 fours. Balance, by contrast, was happy to play the supporting role and faced 85 deliveries, striking three fours and he scored mainly in ones and twos.

When both were dismissed in quick succession Zimbabwe slipped into a mini-slump as they went from 170-2 to 208-6 but late hitting from Higgins ensured the work of the earlier duo was not wasted.

Higgins clobbered two fours and two sixes to help his side past their previous highest score of the tournament, the 215-7 they made against Ireland in the group stages.

Thisara Perera (2-49), Shalika Karunanayake (2-50) and Sachith Pathirana (2-44) each took two wickets while the other successful bowlers were Chathupama Gunasinghe (1-22) and Rajeewa Weerasinghe (1-52).

For Sri Lanka, Roshen Silva replaced Mathews after being drafted into the squad following approval from the tournament's Technical Committee, while Sachithra Serasinghe was absent after being reportedly released from the squad for disciplinary reasons.

Sri Lanka coach Sumithra Waranakulasuriya was pleased with the result which showed his players still had some stomach for the fight despite missing out on the major prize of the ICC U/19 Cricket World Cup trophy.

"It was difficult to motivate them after that loss to Australia (in the Super League quarter-finals) but we have managed to come back and play some good cricket," he said.

"The fielding and bowling was not good but the way we chased down the target was very satisfying.

"It is not as if we have not done enough fielding work because (fielding coach Ruwan) Kalpage has done a tremendous job but it may be a lack of application from the boys and you cannot coach that.

"They are still learning but we do have to send messages out to make sure the boys keep concentrating," he added.

Sean Williams, Zimbabwe's captain, was bitterly disappointed with the way his side's tournament ended.

He set his players the task of winning the Super League play-off to end the tournament with as high a finish as possible but it was not to be and he was clear on the reason for that.

"Our fielding was very poor today, especially the amount of singles Sri Lanka got," he said.

"They were basically blocking the ball and running and we also missed run-out chances.

"I was very impressed with our batting we did what we said we would do before the game and made sure we had wickets in hand rather than worrying about the power plays early on and lose wickets."