Janith Liyanage, playing in just his second One-Day International, delivered a game-changing effort that led his team to a thrilling victory over Zimbabwe on Monday in Colombo. In the second One-Day International, he amassed the highest individual score for Sri Lanka with 95 off 127 balls; the next greatest score was 21, which allowed the hosts to win by two wickets.
But in the 43rd over, Liyanage tried to smash Blessing Muzarabani for six but was caught at mid-off, falling five runs short of his first international century. Muzarabani was one of Zimbabwe’s most dangerous bowlers, and Sri Lanka still had 46 balls to obtain the 37 runs they required, so on the surface, it seemed like a needless move. Furthermore, Liyanage’s exit gave Zimbabwe the upper hand once more, leaving Sri Lanka with just two wickets remaining.
As the rain got worse throughout the roughly thirty minutes of play, the hosts would ultimately limp to their goal of 209 runs. Liyanage clarified that he had to take a chance in the 43rd over due to the weather, not the score or his goal of hitting a century.
“More than the century, what I wanted was to get the team to victory,” he said. “At that time, we were about five runs behind the DLS score. So I thought if I hit a six in that over, we’d be able to win even if the match stopped because of rain. All I thought of was winning the match, and I’m glad we were able to get there.”
Liyanage and Maheesh Theekshana had previously lifted Sri Lanka from a total of 112 for 6 with a 56-run seventh-wicket partnership. Liyanage batted more aggressively during this partnership than he had previously in the innings, with Theekshana contributing just 18 runs. But he was precise about who he targeted.
“When Maheesh and I were batting, they [Zimbabwe] were bowling their best bowlers, and they only had a few overs left,” Liyanage said. “So our plan was to get two or three runs an over off their best bowlers, then take the game into the last five or six overs, and score our runs there. “
For a significant portion of the chase, rain was forecast, and 13 overs into Sri Lanka’s innings, a lengthy delay was unavoidable. Liyanage said that the rainfall has helped Zimbabwe’s quicks.
“We lost two wickets at the start, and with the rain, the ball started to move a bit. So I thought at time that they’ve got two fast bowlers, so I’ll defend against them and if I bat for a while and get set, I could bat till the end. Their tall quicks got a bit extra out of the conditions with the rain.”
