Sri Lanka captain Upul Tharanga became the first Sri Lankan and 11th batsmen in the one-day history to carry his bat through a complete innings with a fighting 144-ball 112 not out with 14 boundaries – his 15th ODI century.
Tharanga stood alone as Sri Lanka needed 51 off the last five overs, but the last two batsmen were run out and he was left stranded.
Chasing a target of 220, Sri Lanka batsmen made this below par score a impossible one, with slow and negative batting. After Niroshan Dickwela and Kusal Mendis perished early, Lahiru Thirimane went to his usual best and played a typical blockathon.
All he could have done is to rotate the strike and build a reasonable partnership with Tharanga, which eventually a tailender Jeffrey Vandersay did for his team.
Tharanga and Vandarsay (22) put up a fighting 76-run eighth wicket stand.
Tharanga rose to the occasion and tried his best to single handedly win the match for Sri Lanka. But with last two batsman were ran out, he couldn’t pull out one of the most stunning win of his career.
