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Sri Lanka topple Zimbabwe
BY : SYED WASEEM AFZAL.
Sri Lanka continued their winning run in the Coca Cola Champions Trophy with an
impressive all round performance against Zimbabwe, thrashing them by a
big margin of 123 runs to storm into the final.
Put in to bat after losing the toss, Srilanka's opening pair put up 110 runs in 15.4
overs. Jayasuriya played with his flamboyant style and punished some indisciplined
bowling by the Zimbabweans early on. Where as Kaluwitharna replacing Gunawardena in the
opening slot played sensibly for his 25 off 38 balls but sacrificed his wicket to protect
his Captain from getting run out in a misunderstanding.
Sanath Jayasuriya went after the attack and smashed 87 runs from just 66 balls,
studded with 12 fours and 2 sixes before being bowled by seamer Travis Friend,
13 short of his first century at the Shajah Stadium.
Sri Lanka failed to capitalize on that opening stand as middle-order collapse
saw the loss of four wickets for just 45 runs. This collapse saw Lankans slipping
from 132 for 1 in the 19th over to 155 for 4 in the 28th over.
Marvan Atapattu, held the innings together but was run out for the
second time in two matches soon after reaching his half-century, he made a patient
58 off 88 deliveries.
Thanks to Chaminda Vaas for his quick fire of 23 from 16 balls with three sixes
and Weeraratne was not out on 14 off 7 balls for propping up the tempo.
In fact, 38 runs came off the last three overs, helping Sri Lanka set up an imposing
total of 276 for 9 from 50 overs.
For Zimbabwe, Flower(2/29) and Viljoen (1/38) bowled well. Pommie Mbangwa was
treated with disdain and was smashed for 36 runs from his 4 overs. Friend though
expensive claimed two wickets. Zimbabwean fielding was sharp and this resulted
in three run outs of three top order batsmen.
Chasing a stiff target, Zimbabwe never seemed to be in picture for victory
as they slumped to 46 for 6. The chief architects of Zimbabwe's destruction were
Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa.
Left-arm seamer Chaminda Vaas removed Douglas Marrilier
and Stuart Carlisle off successive balls in his fifth over and Nuwan Zoysa
dismissed Zimbabwe's most dangerous batsmen, Andy Flower and Alistair Campbell,
to make it 35 for 4 in the 14th over. Vaas (2/27) and Zoysa (3/16) both bowled
a deadly opening spell to wreck the top order of Zimbabwean batting line.
Off-spinner Muthiah Murlitharan accounted for Guy Whittall and then removed
Grant Flower in his next over to claim his 199th one-day wicket.
Dirk Viljoen played a lone battle for Zimbabwe with 60 as Murlitharan returned
with remarkable figures of two for 19 from 10 overs. Zimbabwe were eventually
skittled out for 153 in 48.3 overs to suffer a heavy defeat.
Sri Lanka will play in Sunday's final even if they lose their last league match against
India on Friday. Where as Zimbabwe, with three defeats in a row, can now qualify only on
run-rate, provided they defeat India on Thursday and Sri Lanka beat India by a big margin.
Click here for full Scorecard.
Wednesday, October 25, 2000.
source : UAEcricket.com.
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