Dilshan century drives Sri Lanka to title

Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka, Tri-Series, Final, Harare
June 09, 2010

On the final day of the tri-series, the clock struck 12 and Zimbabwe's Cinderella XI ran into harsh reality. Put into bat, they were accosted by top-quality swing bowling from Nuwan Kulasekara and Dilhara Fernando, and the damage done in those early overs was too great to reverse for a resourceful Tatenta Taibu, who swept and hustled his way to 71. Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga were ruthless in finishing Zimbabwe off with a 160-run opening stand.

Zimbabwe were also hit hard by their batsmen's general tendency to not play the full-blooded cut shot. Brendan Taylor, their best batsman of the tournament, and Taibu, the best on the final day, both fell to limp cuts, finding gully and point respectively. On the big day, Zimbabwe displayed muddled thinking too: with five wickets down, both Greg Lamb and Charles Coventry got out swinging, but the batting Powerplay wasn't taken before the 46th over. Nor did they open the bowling with spin, a move that had worked well for them. By the time Ray Price bowled his first over, Sri Lanka had already reached 38 in six overs.read more...

Brief Score:
Sri Lanka 203 for 1 (Dilshan 108*, Tharanga 72) beat Zimbabwe 199 (Taibu 71, Fernando 3-36) by nine wickets

Courtesy: www.cricinfo.com

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