Sikandar roars in Colombo: Zimbabwe stun Sri Lanka, fire warning shot at India

TimesofIndia.com successful Colombo: At the extremity of the archetypal innings, Zimbabwe leg-spinner Graeme Cremer voiced assurance astir chasing down Sri Lanka’s 178 successful their last radical lucifer astatine the R Premadasa Stadium successful Colombo.

“We thought it was a bully batting wicket. We consciousness it’s a precise chaseable score. If we bat well, we should beryllium capable to get it done,” said Cremer.Every connection Cremer said proved prophetic. It was erstwhile again the 39-year-old warhorse Sikandar Raza who stepped up and played a blistering 26-ball 45 to acceptable the chase. Opener Brian Bennett (60 not out) stayed astatine the extremity to instrumentality Zimbabwe with 3 balls to spare. Zimbabwe defeated co-hosts Sri Lanka by six-wickets and finished the radical signifier unbeaten with 3 wins, including a connection triumph implicit Australia.

Captain fantastic

On the sidelines of the SA20, wherever Raza was playing for Paarl Royals, helium had told TimesofIndia.com what it means for him to deterioration the Zimbabwean jersey. “The World Cup is truly important successful each cricketer's life. And I ever deliberation for Zimbabwe to summation much respect successful satellite cricket, World Cups play a immense part. So we person the mindset to spell determination and effort and bash truly good truthful that we tin travel backmost with our goals acceptable precocious and truthful that our radical backmost location tin clasp their heads precocious arsenic well,” Raza had said.

On a windy Thursday evening successful Colombo, helium took matters into his ain hands. When helium walked into the ground, Zimbabwe needed 81 runs disconnected 50 balls and the lucifer was evenly poised, but Raza decided not today.Sikandar Raza’s innings was a masterclass successful control, consciousness and ruthless finishing. He began successful measured fashion, rotating the onslaught against the spinners. Against Dunith Wellalage and Dasun Shanaka, helium was contented to enactment the shot into gaps, nudging singles and ensuring the asking complaint ne'er climbed.

His aboriginal attack was built connected brushed hands, precocious cuts and quiescent punches quadrate of the wicket, allowing Zimbabwe to consolidate without risk.As Zimbabwe crossed the 100-run mark, Raza subtly shifted gears. Sensing Sri Lanka’s bowlers searching for breakthroughs, helium began manipulating the tract with ease.Maheesh Theekshana, brought backmost to stem the flow, missed his lengths ever truthful somewhat and Raza pounced. A wide afloat flip was sliced done backward point, followed by a towering lofted thrust implicit long-on.

In a blink, a choky implicit turned costly and Sri Lanka’s grip connected the crippled loosened.The decisive stroke came against Dushan Hemantha. Raza work him early, picked the dragged-down wrong’un and dispatched it implicit mid-wicket. When Hemantha dared to transportation it up, Raza responded with disdain, launching a 101-metre consecutive deed backmost implicit the bowler’s head. Colombo fell soundless arsenic the contention tilted decisively Zimbabwe’s way.Dilshan Madushanka’s variations offered little resistance, with a slower shot beating Raza’s large swing, but the Zimbabwe skipper was already locked in. The precise adjacent transportation that sat up was punished, rolled wrists, cleanable equilibrium and a ferocious propulsion dumped implicit quadrate limb for six.When Raza got out, Zimbabwe needed 12 runs disconnected 10 balls and aft a flimsy hiccup, Tony Munyonga’s six disconnected the archetypal shot of the 20th implicit sealed the triumph for Zimbabwe.

It was fitting that the winning changeable came disconnected Brian Bennett’s bat.Interestingly, the Zimbabwe squad did not over-celebrate and their batters walked disconnected arsenic if it were conscionable different match.Watch out, teams successful the Super Eight, including favourites India, volition look Zimbabwe precisely a week aboriginal astatine the MA Chidambaram Stadium successful Chennai.

Sri Lanka stutters successful the middle

Earlier, Sri Lanka capped their innings with a beardown precocious surge to station an above-par 178 for 7, smashing 30 runs disconnected the last 2 overs to wrest backmost momentum aft a prolonged middle-overs squeeze.Opting to bat archetypal aft winning the toss, Sri Lanka wanted to situation themselves by mounting a people connected a aboveground that wasn’t casual for strokeplay. Openers Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Perera made the astir of the harder caller ball, timing it sweetly and uncovering gaps with regularity. Their fluent 54-run opening basal laid a coagulated instauration earlier Blessing Muzarabani broke done successful the 5th over, dismissing Perera for 22.

Despite that setback, Sri Lanka closed the powerplay successful a commanding presumption astatine 61 for 1.The crippled shifted decisively aft the tract spread. Zimbabwe’s spinners tightened the screws connected a aboveground that offered grip and turn, choking the bound travel and forcing Sri Lanka into a play of consolidation. While runs came mostly done crisp singles and twos, the deficiency of boundaries slowed the scoring rate. Nissanka, continuing his affluent vein of signifier aft a period successful the erstwhile match, held the innings unneurotic with different composed knock, raising a well-crafted half-century.Sri Lanka were pegged backmost further erstwhile Ryan Burl removed Kusal Mendis for a laboured 14 disconnected 20 balls. Soon after, Graeme Cremer accounted for Nissanka, dismissing the opener for 62, a stroke that drained momentum. From that constituent on, the innings stagnated, with Sri Lanka managing conscionable 81 runs successful the 11 overs pursuing the powerplay.Brief Scores: Sri Lanka: 178 for 7 successful 20 overs (Pathum Nissanka 62, Pavan Rathnayake 44; Graeme Cremer 2/27, Blessing Muzarabani 2/38)Zimbabwe: 182 for 4 successful 19.3 overs (Brian Bennett 63 not out, Sikandar Raza 45; Dushan Hemantha 2/36)