Hasaranga, Mendis, Samarawickrama lead SL’s win in marketing campaign opener
Sri Lanka 355 for six (Mendis 78, Samarawickrama 73, Naseer 2-44) beat UAE 180 (Waseem 39, Aravind 39, Hasaranga 6-24)
Sadeera Samarawickrama and Kusal Mendis led a quartet of half-centuries from Sri Lanka as they dominated UAE and loved a successful begin to their World Cup Qualifier marketing campaign in Zimbabwe.
Openers Dimuth Karunaratne and Pathum Nissanka additionally struck fifties as Sri Lanka posted 355 for six. Their assault was with out Dushmantha Chameera, who was sidelined with a shoulder pressure, however Wanindu Hasaranga bagged career-best List A figures of 6 for twenty-four to wreck UAE’s chase. Maheesh Theekshana and Dhananjaya de Silva backed Hasaranga up as UAE have been rolled over for 180 in 39 overs.
Allrounder Ali Naseer stood out amid the UAE rubble, following up his sharp spell of two for 44 in his ten overs with a sprightly cameo. Since making his ODI debut towards West Indies earlier this month in Sharjah, Naseer has made scores of 58, 57, 13, and 34 in 4 innings along with fronting as much as bowl the troublesome overs.
On Monday, Sri Lanka’s high 4 noticed him off and lined up the opposite bowlers. Mendis handled wristspinner Karthik Meiyappan with contempt, taking him for 36 off 18 balls. Having sussed out that Meiyappan was repeatedly dipping into his improper’un and never threatening the stumps sufficient, Mendis attacked him with quite a lot of sweeps. Contrastingly, Hasaranga and Theekshana did not hand over the stumps and did not give UAE’s batters as many probabilities to make use of the sweep.
Samarawickrama additionally performed a variety of creative strokes throughout his 64-ball 73, the choose of them being a ramped 4 off Naseer within the forty fourth over. Samarawickrama had initially formed to scoop the ball over quick positive leg, however Naseer shifted his line even wider of off. Samarawickrama was so switched on that he modified his shot on the final immediate and ramped it over wicketkeeper Vriitya Aravind. He had solid a 105-run partnership for the third wicket with Mendis off 77 balls, which shaped the cornerstone of Sri Lanka’s innings.
Before that they had bought collectively, Nissanka and Kartunaratne had additionally completed their bit by countering the early-morning swing and seam motion. Karunaratne was the extra fluent of the 2 openers and was answerable for six of the 9 fours Sri Lanka had scored within the powerplay.
But Sri Lanka needed to wait till the forty eighth over for his or her first six. Charith Asalanka injected higher urgency into the innings when he shanked Muhammad Jawadullah over vast long-on for six. Then within the subsequent over, he launched Rohan Mustafa for an additional imposing six. Hasaranga joined the hitting spree within the ultimate over, thumping Zahoor Khan for 3 fours off 4 balls.
Hasaranga then ran rings round UAE of their chase, although a few of their gamers have performed with – or towards – Hasaranga throughout the inaugural ILT20. They struggled to choose his improper’un specifically because the wristspinner went on to file his maiden five-wicket haul in ODI cricket.
“He [Hasaranga] is world-class, one of the best bowlers in the world right now,” Aravind stated at his post-match press convention. “We did look at videos and tried to analyse what he does. But of course once you are playing it, it is a different story. Credit to him, he bowled really well today.”
Naseer apart, UAE captain Muhammad Waseem (39) and vice-captain Aravind (39) have been the one batters to cross 30 within the chase.
When the 2 groups final met on the T20 World Cup in Australia in 2022, Meiyappan picked up a hat-trick, and overshadowed Hasaranga, who was his senior throughout his IPL stint as a internet bowler at Royal Challengers Bangalore.
On Monday, it was Hasaranga, the grasp, who bossed his protégé and UAE.