Sri Lanka clinch Zim Triangular series

Half centuries from Kusal Mendis and Upul Tharanga powered Sri Lanka to a six wicket victory in the Blue Mountain Achilleion triangular series final at Queens Sports Club in Bulawayo.

The hosts made three changes to the team bringing in debutant Tarisai Musakanda, Brian Vitori and Malcolm Waller in for Chris Mpofu, Bruno Chari and Chamu Chibhabha.

In a rejigged opening their failing opening pair using Peter Moor and Hamilton Masakadza. The former was out for 1 with the score on 8 while Masakadza could only put 8 on the board. Musakanda came in next and looked good playing a variety of shots with 36 off 37 balls. After playing a six over the mid-on Sikanda Raza seemed to whisper something to him. The next ball, he pushed at a ball from Jeffrey Vandersay getting a healthy edge to be caught at slip by Dhananjaya de Silva.

Craig Ervine’s 25 and Sean Williams’s 35 were the only other scores of some significance as the Chevrons were bowled out for 160 in 36.3 overs.

Viroti made a dramatic return to international cricket with a reducing Sri Lanka to 44-3 by the time the teams went for lunch but there were always too few runs on the board, The visitors reached 166 for the loss of 4 wickets with 75 balls remaining.

Said Zimbabwe captain Graeme Cremer:

For sure, we have got together in short space of time. The team spirit is up. The guys are hungry to perform and hungry to succeed and we can’t ask for anything more form them.

There was a lot to to be positive about for Zimbabwe since Heath Streak took over as head coach.

With no international cricket for a while, the momentum might suffer.