Zimbabwe vs Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka was far ahead, those three balls which turned the match, the story of Zimbabwe’s comeback and then victory

New Delhi. Zimbabwe created the second major upset in the group matches of the T20 World Cup by defeating Sri Lanka after Australia. This Group-B match was played at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, in which Zimbabwe won by 6 wickets and left Sri Lanka behind and became the group topper and made the noise of Super-8. At one time in this 38th match, Sri Lanka had a strong hold, but within three balls, Zimbabwe made a comeback by shifting the momentum of the match in their favor and then surprised everyone. This big turning point of the match was seen in the 15th over of the second innings.

Chasing the target of 179 runs, Zimbabwe’s score was 114/2 after 14 overs. 65 runs were needed in 36 balls to win. In the 15th over, captain Raza changed gears and adopted an aggressive style and hit two sixes and a four on the last three balls, taking Zimbabwe’s score to 134/2. These three big hits of Sikandar Raza brought Zimbabwe back into the match and raised hopes of victory. Raza did not stop here, he also attacked in the next two overs by hitting two sixes and a four and brought the team very close to victory. However, Raza was out in the 19th over after playing an inning of 44 runs. He hit two fours and four sixes in 25 balls.

There was a slight twist in the match due to Raza’s dismissal, when there was another blow in the next three balls, but Tony Munyonga sealed Zimbabwe’s victory by hitting a six in the last over. Zimbabwe needed eight runs in the last over. Brian Bennett hit the winning four on the third ball of the over. This is Zimbabwe’s second biggest win in T20 International.

Bennett played a half-century innings
Brian Bennett also played an important role in this victory. While opening, Bennett held one end and scored a half-century. He played an unbeaten inning of 63 runs with eight fours in 48 balls. With this half-century, he equaled Sean Williams and became the team’s joint second highest scorer of 50+ in this format. Captain Sikandar Raza is at the forefront in this matter. He has done this feat 17 times.