Admittedly, Zimbabwe had not been able to produce their best form, which gave rise to them pulling off a stunning upset. The opening duo of Upul Tharanga and Tillakeratne Dilshan produced a glittering partnership and it negated Zimbabwean skipper’s thoughts of early breakthroughs after electing to bowl first. The other factor for his decision was the chance of heavy dew in the second half of the match.
Sri Lanka were well aware of this and with the wicket gradually getting slower with the older ball, knew that strokemaking would be difficult too.
Their openers came out with a mission and proceeded to flay the bowling to all parts from the beginning and posted a huge stand that only hindered Zimbabwean bowling figures. Both players pulled, cut, drove and swept with panache. In spite of many bowling changes, the onslaught continued for the hapless bowlers. Dilshan reached his ton with 12 overs to go and briefly threatened Sachinís double ton record. At the other end, Tharanga reached his maiden World Cup ton. He is a beacon for his side and has been consistent and it was pleasing to see him convert a start into a substantial score, which would’ve no doubt increased his confidence.
Zimbabwe gained some revenge by picking up late wickets as the home side pressed for late runs as records tumbled with Sri Lanka ending up on 327-6. At one time 350 was on the cards but by going berserk and promoting sloogers up the order, they missed the opportunity.
The Kiwis scoring 114 runs from six overs against Pakistan was a rare occurrence. And Sri Lanka just couldn’t repeat it. So the wiser approach for batting power-play is to aim for 40 runs by relying on cricketing strokes which also prevents the loss of wickets.
Brendon Taylor would’ve pumped up his charges with the talk of Ireland’s win against England, India’s draw with the English at the break; asking them to draw inspiration from that. Zimbabwe had a chance.
And Taylor and Regis Chakabva ensured a good start. Their approach was refreshing and without taking too many risks, they took the score to 100. As the partnership started to threaten an upset, Kumar Sangakkara turned to his last resort — Muttiah Muralitharan.
Now was the time for the Zimbabwean batsmen to ensure that they didn’t get carried away. But Murali’s guile was too much for them as he gave the Sri Lankans the vital breakthrough which triggered a collapse before their hopes of an upset were crushed as Dishan showed his ability with the ball too.
One hopes that the Pakistan team watched the game and wouldn’t take Zimbabwe lightly as it would only result in a fallback to 2007 when we suffered humiliation at the hands of the Irish. Zimbabwe have decent cricketers who can spring an upset.
