Captain Upul Tharanga made a patient half-century while young Kusal Mendis smashed an eye-pleasing fifty to guide Sri Lanka to a convincing 6-wicket win over Zimbabwe in the final of the Tri-Series played in Bulawayo today.
After the spin-trio, Asela Gunarathne, Jeffrey Vandersay and Sachith Pathirana combined to restrict the hosts to 160, Tharanga and Mendis shrugged off early jitters caused by Brian Vitori to take Sri Lanka over the winning with more than 12 overs to spare.
After slowly adding 28 off 78 deliveries, Tharanga finally kicked into fourth gear slamming three consecutive boundaries off left-arm spinner Tendai Chisoro and ended up smashing Sikander Raza for a six to finish off the game to remain unbeaten on 57 off 98 balls.
Mendis, both the man of the final and series stroked his second consecutive fifty, 7th overall in only his 16th ODI innings for Sri Lanka, slammed 10 delightful boundaries before a stunning Sean Williams catch at deep square leg brought an end to the match-winning 75-run fourth wicket stand.
Earlier, after opting to bat first on a gloomy Sunday morning, Zimbabwe lost both their openers inside the first five overs with the weather interrupting play briefly.
The Zimbabwean openers throughout the tournament, Brian Chari and Chamu Chibhabha were both left out for the final, with Peter Moor promoted to the top of the innings and Tarisai Musakanda given an international debut at No. 3.
Moor flicked it straight to square leg fielder, Pathirana off Suranga Lakmal while Hamilton Masakadza was struck plumb in front by Nuwan Kulasekara. Musakanda and Craig Ervine revived the innings with a 53-run stand for the third wicket before right-arm leg-spinner Vandersay intervened when he had Ervine caught and bowled for 25, then had the debutant caught at slip for 36.
Left-arm spinner, Pathirana trapped in-form Sikandar Raza LBW for 5 and caught Malcolm Waller miscuing a slop sweep off his own bowling. Mendis took a brilliant leaping catch to his left to dismiss the captain Graeme Cremer off Vandersay as Zimbabwe kept losing wickets at regular intervals.
Gunarathne wiped off the Zimbabwe tail with his off-cutters and prevented them from staging a comeback similar to their effort against West Indies on Friday which enabled them to sneak into the final. Gunarathne deceived the Sean Williams, Tendai Chisoro and Brian Vitori in the space of four deliveries during his spell to end with impressive figures of 3 for 10 in just 4.3 overs while Vandersay took 3 for 50 from his 10 overs.
Chasing a modest 161 runs to win, Sri Lanka had to face 7 testing overs before the lunch break. Left-arm seamer, Brian Vitori returning to international cricket with a remodeled action dismissed the in-form Dhananjaya De Silva, trapping the right-hander LBW for a golden duck with a fuller length delivery and uprooted Niroshan Dickwella’s stumps with a terrific late seaming delivery.
Vice-Captain Kusal Janith Perera who had a forgettable tournament played across the line and skied to mid-off where Malcolm Waller took a safe catch as Vitori captured his 3rd wicket.
