Sri Lanka crashed to their second lowest T20I total ever, going down for 80 inside 18 overs, as Sikandar Raza, Brad Evans and Blessing Muzarabani shared eight wickets between them. At no point in their batting innings did Sri Lanka stage even a mild recovery. There was a 26-run partnership for sixth wicket, but even that appeared laboured, and had multiple close calls.
Zimbabwe’s top partnership was also worth just 26, but they strung greater periods of batting competence together, even in the face of some penetrative bowling from Dushmantha Chameera. Tashinga Musekiwa’s assured 21 not out off 12 balls helped the home side stroll to victory in the 15th over.
Brief scores:
Zimbabwe 84 for 5 (Brian Benett 19, Tadiwanashe Marumani 17, Tashinga Musekiwa 21*, Ryan Burl 20*; Binura Fernando 1-14, Maheesh Theekshana 1-28, Dushmantha Chameera 3-19) beat Sri Lanka 80 in 17.4 overs [Kamil Mishara 20, Charith Asalanka 18, Dasun Shanaka 15; Blessing Muzarabani 2-14, Brad Evans 3-15, Sikandar Raza 3-11, Sean Williams 1-19] by five wickets
[Cricinfo]
