 Roshan Mahanama late cuts Paul Strang on his way to a stylish 52. Pic by Dunstan Wickremaratne |
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Sri Lanka rubbed salt on the Zimbabwean wounds as they waltzed to a five wicket victory in the 2nd One-Day International at the R Premadasa Stadiun yesterday.The victory gave the world champions an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the three match one-day series.
Chasing Zimbabwe's modest 212 for 8 the Lankans were in no undue hurry as they paced their innings well to reach the target with 10 balls and 5 wickets remaining.
Zimbabwe won the toss and took first lease of the wicket.Ravindra Pushpakumara gave the home side a flying start when he forced opener Andy Flower to drag a ball back to his stumps in the first over. But the visitors recovered from the early set back through a century stand for the second wicket between Grant Flower and Murray Goodwin
Both batsmen played the bowling on it's merits and collected their runs freely on both sides of the wicket. Grant Flower completed his 17th half century before gifting his wicket whilst attempting a reverse sweep off Sanath Jayasuriya, only to see his castle disturbed.
Goodwin who was playing only in his second one-dayer anchored the innings as he completed a maiden century in 128 balls with the help of five boundaries and a five. The Western Australia Sheffield Shield player displayed great maturity as he held the Zimbabwe innings together after the middle order crumbled to the Lankan spinners. From an imposing 108 for one the visitors lost their way to finish on 212 for 8 in their 50 overs.
Sri Lanka started off sedately with Sanath Jayasuriya curbing some of his aggressive strokes but striking the occasional boundary and Marvan Atapattu dropping anchor.The pair put on 76 runs in 18.2 overs before Jayasuriya was snapped up by a spectacular one handed catch by a running Heath Streak at long-off. The dusky left hander completed his 23rd half century in 61 balls.
Atapattu was joined by Mahanama and the pair added a further 41 runs for the second wicket before Atapattu departed for 45. Soon after Aravinda De Silva was beaten and deceived by a Paul Strang delivery as Sri Lanka were 127 for 3 wickets in the 31 st over.
However any chance of a Zimbabwe victory was foiled as skipper Arjuna Ranatunge took charge in the middle. The skipper who is enjoying the Zim tour with the bat followed his unbeaten half century in the first ODI with another crafty 43.
Together with Mahanama, Ranatunge added 67 runs for the 4th wicket that sealed the fate of the visitors. Mahanama went on to complete a fluent half century in 67 balls with a solitary boundary and helped the world champions to coast to an easy five wicket victory.
Sri Lanka are expected to make a couple of changes for the 3rd ODI which will be played at the SSC grounds tomorrow (Monday).
Zimbabwe
G.Flower b Jayasuriya 51 (Attempted reverse sweep)
A.Flower b R.Pushpakumara 2
(Attempted drive off the back foot, played on to stumps)
M.Goodwin b Chandana 111
(Attempted big hit over mid wicket)
G.Whittal b Chandana 13
(Attempted sweep, bowled around his legs)
A.Campbell c Jayasuriya b Muralitha-
ran 6
(Lofted drive to long off)
C.Wishart run out 6
(Beaten by a throw from U.Chandana at short fine leg)
P.Strang c Mahanama b Jayasuriya 4
(Lofted drive to extra cover)
H.Streak run out 4
(Attempted second run, beaten by a t
hrow from Jayasuriya)
J.Rennie not out 4
Extras (LB:6; W-3; NB-2) 11
Total (for 8 wkts in 50 overs) 212
Fall of Wickets: 1-3, 2-108, 3-143, 4-165, 5-187, 6-203, 7-204, 8-212.
Bowling: R.Pushpakumara 7-0-26-1; A.de Silva 4-0-14-0; K.Dharmasena 10-2-28-0; S.Jayasuriya 10-0-53-2; M.Muralitharan 9-0-42-2.
Sri Lanka
S.Jayasuriya c Streak b Whittal 50
(Lofted drive caught at long-off)
M.Atapattu c P.Strang b G.Flower 45
(Uppish drive, caught at extra cover)
R.Mahanama run out 52
(Attempted run, pushing to short fine leg, beaten by throw from Strang)
A.de. Silva st. A.Flower b P.Strang 3
(Playing forward, beaten on the flight of the ball)
A.Ranatunga c & b A.Whittal 43
(Attempted drive)
R.Kaluwitharne not out 8
M.Jayawardena not out 1
Extras (LB:6, W-4, NB-1) 11
Total (for 5 wkts in 48.2 overs) 213
Fall of Wickets: 1-76, 2-117, 3-127, 4-194, 5-212.
Bowling: H.Streak 8-0-37-0; J.Rennie 10-0-43-0; A.Whittal 8.2-0-33-2; P.Strang 6-0-18-1; G.Flower 6-0-22-1; M.Mbanguwa 8-0-42-0; A.Campbell 2-0-12-0.
Man of the match :Murray Goodwin
Zimbabwe Coach David Houghton was suspended from duties for the remaining two one-day Internationals, by Match Referee Raman Subba Row following a breach of the ICC code of conduct.
Houghton, in an interview with a local TV station publicly criticized the umpires in the 2nd Test at the SSC grounds, which Sri Lanka won by 5 wickets.
Clause 8 of ICC"s code of conduct regulations provides that "players and team officials shall not make any public pronouncement or media comment which is detrimental either to the game in general or to a particular tour in which they are involved."
In a press release to the media Match Referee Raman Subba Row said, "ICC's code of conduct makes it perfectly clear that team officials shall not make any media comment which is detrimental to the tour in question. Such requirement was emphasised at the pre-series meeting.
The breach is therefore regrettable and inevitably has to carry an appropriate penalty.
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