Image Credit- AP
In the third exciting finale of this tour, Zimbabwe
stormed to a resounding victory thanks to spectacular hitting in the last over
from Luke Jongwe and Clive Madande. With one ball remaining, Madande delivered
the winning punch, although Craig Ervine’s 70 off 54 had laid the groundwork
for the chase of 174.
Specifically, Ervine had blunted Wanindu Hasaranga’s
bowling, who averaged 10.25 during his four overs. Even so, Zimbabwe needed 20
runs from Angelo Mathews’ last over. Despite Zimbabwe’s tremendous power
hitting, Sri Lanka also made a lot of mistakes that allowed them to lose from a
strong position.
Before the most recent over, Zimbabwe had scored a
maximum of 13. In an attempt to end the match, skipper Hasaranga tried to use
all of his frontliners by the 19th over, therefore he was left with little
choice but to bowl one of his mild seamers, Dasun Shanaka or Mathews, in the
20th. To make matters worse for the hosts, they were punished for a slow over
rate, which limited their number of field players to four beyond the 30-yard
circle.
At this point, Jongwe was eight off seven balls. But
when he was bowled modestly, he started to find the limit. He blasted a length
outside off over long on for six on the opening ball. Most importantly, it
became clear that Mathews had gone too far when bowling that ball, so Zimbabwe
still had six to face.
Mathews missed his yorker-length, and the next ball, a
free-hit, was blasted inside out over cover. Then came the game-winning blow:
Mathews again allowed Jongwe to get underneath him, this time with a thunderous
six over the bowler’s head off a slower ball. In just two balls of play, the
required score was reduced to three runs off of four balls.
After missing the next ball, Jongwe hit the next one
high into the infield off the top edge, only for Maheesh Theekshana to drop it.
With the sixth delivery, Madande delivered the game-winning hit, smashing the
third six of the over over deep midwicket to spark wild celebrations and
silence Colombo.