ZIM vs SL | Twitter laud Lankan Lions as Nissanka century and lower order take help them claim series

The surface was challenging for the Lankan openers Pathum Nissanka and Nuwanidu Fernando, who took a cautious approach in the first five overs to negate the early seam movement and made up for the sluggish start in the last few overs to finish on a score of 45/0 after 10 overs. However, as soon as the field restrictions were removed, Brad Evans got the hosts back in the game by knocking over Fernando’s off stump with a beauty and dismissing Kusal Mendis in the 15th over. Though the two wickets did manage to dry up the runs for a while, Nissanka, along with Sadeera Samarawickram, built an important third-wicket stand. The two batters made sure that runs came at a steady rate and took the score to 122/2 at the halfway stage. Both started to score runs at a brisk pace after the first half, until there was a ray of hope for the hosts as the partnership of 78 was finally broken in the 31st over by debutante Ernest Masuku, who got the important wicket of Samarawickrama. However, the dismissal did not cause much damage, as Nissanka continued to take the game as deep as possible and got some great support from Sri Lanka skipper Charith Asalanka at the other end. As another great partnership was formed, the victory was in Sri Lanka's grasp with the score reading 211/3 after 40, and the visiting team needing  67 off the remaining 60 balls. While it seemed like they would cruise to an easy win, Richard Ngarava brought the game back in the balance after dismissing Nissanka after an incredible knock of 122. The Chevrons had given themselves a chance to win the game as the runs suddenly dried up towards the end. Unfortunately, their efforts went in vain as the Lankans finished the game with three balls to spare and five wickets remaining to claim the series.