Sri Lanka had a perfect outing in their third league clash of ICC World Cup Qualifiers 2023 against Ireland at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo. After Dimuth Karunaratne's maiden ODI century helped Sri Lanka post 325 on the board, Wanindu Hasaranga’s magnificent fifer did not let the Irish batters put up a fight as they lost the game by a big margin of 133 runs.
Karunaratne’s ton
Ireland skipper Andrew Balbirnie won the toss and opted to field first. Barry McCarthy got two quick wickets with the new ball in the ninth over. Karunaratne and Sadeera Samarawickrama shared a 168-run partnership for the third wicket. Samarawickrama scored 82 runs from 86 deliveries including four fours. Gareth Delany broke the partnership. Karunaratne got to his maiden ODI century as well despite making his ODI debut in 2011. He is second on the list of most Test centuries (16) before maiden ODI ton.
Charith Asalanka's 30-ball 38 and Dhananjaya de Silva's 35-ball 42 helped Sri Lanka post 325. As Adair rushed through the lower order with a four-fer, Sri Lanka got all out with one innings left in the innings.
Hasaranga’s record-breaking fifer
Chasing 326, Ireland openers failed to provide a decent start. Then Hasaranga struck early in his first spell and skipper Dasun Shanaka from other end. Ireland's struggle continued against spinners Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana. The Sri Lankan duo rushed through their batting order. Ireland got all out for 192 in 31 overs, losing the match by 133 runs. Theekshana took a couple of wickets whereas Hasaranga bagged another fifer. This is Hasaranga’s third consecutive fifer in ODIs, a feat only achieved by former Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis.
The loss knocked Ireland out of World Cup 2023 contention as they failed to progress to the Super Six stage. “Hugely disappointing not to get to the super sixes but you gotta move on. We are gonna pick ourselves up quickly, whenever you play for Ireland there's a lot of pride regardless of the situation and that's what we got to play for in the next game,” Balbirnie skipper said in the post-match presentation.
Sri Lankan skipper Shanaka lauded Karunaratne for adapting fast as he said, “When he played the ODI series [against Afghanistan] it was a different combination and as soon as he came in, he settled in and he has got the experience, playing Test cricket and domestic cricket.
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