“Pressure creates diamonds!”- Twitter goes berserk as Dhananjaya de Silva whacks a match-winning 50 to keep Sri Lanka in the tournament
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Dhananjaya de Silva
Dhananjaya de Silva struck a match-winning half-century to guide Sri Lanka to a clinical six-wicket victory against Afghanistan on November 1 at the Gabba in Brisbane. His unbeaten 66 runs came at a time when Sri Lanka needed to win desperately to keep their hunt for the semi-final alive.
Afghan spinners Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Rashid Khan gave the breakthrough when they dismissed openers Pathum Nissanka (10 off 10) and Kusal Mendis (25 off 27) in the second and eighth over, respectively.
However, the third wicket did not fall till the 14th over. Rashid was successful in breaking the budding partnership between Charith Asalanka and Dhananjaya de Silva when the former tried to clear the flighted ball over the long-on fielder but couldn’t connect it well. Azmatullah Omarzai grabbed a fine catch with both hands over his head.
In the 18th over, Mujeeb’s short ball made Bhanuka Rajapaksa push it toward the third man, but the keeper Rahmanullah Gurbaz ran to his left and grabbed it. Sri Lanka didn’t lose another wicket after that.
De Silva went on to smash a match-winning, also his third, T20I half-century off 36 balls. Eventually, he ended the match in his team’s favor with his unbeaten 42-ball 66 runs, studded with six boundaries and two maximums at a strike rate of 157.14. He smacked a four on the third ball of the 19th over to end the Islanders’ innings in style, as they won the match by six wickets with nine balls to spare.
Earlier, Afghanistan opted to bat first after winning the toss. Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored the most for his team with his 24-ball 28, followed by Usman Ghani’s 27 off 27. Despite no batters scoring much, Afghanistan still put on a decent total of 144/8 owing to every batter’s contributions. Wanindu Hasaranga again proved economical with his three scalps for just 13 runs in his four overs.
With this win, the Lankans grabbed two crucial points and were promoted to No.3 on the points table with four points from four matches to keep their semi-final hope alive in the T20 World Cup 2022. However, Afghanistan are still at the bottom of the points table in Group 1, with just two points from four matches.
Check how Twitter reacted to Dhananjaya de Silva’s match-winning knock
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Gouri Das
(4697 Articles Published)