Sri Lanka, the T20 World Cup 2014 champions, made a solid start to the Super 12s round of the 2022 edition with a dominant nine-wicket win over Ireland in Hobart on Sunday.
Not much went right for Ireland after Andrew Balbirnie won the toss and opted to bat, with the skipper falling for a single to Lahiru Kumara in just the second over of the innings. Maheesh Theekshana removed Lorcan Tucker not long after, and the Sri Lankan bowlers managed to keep the batters under sustained pressure to limit the scoring.
Paul Stirling, fresh from a blistering fifty against West Indies, couldn’t convert his start this time round, and his wicket to Dhananjaya de Silva in the ninth over significantly dented Ireland’s progress. Harry Tector lacked fluency during his 45 off 42, and Theekshana and Wanindu Hasaranga ran through the lower middle-order to limit Ireland to 128/8 in the allotted 20 overs.
Sri Lanka openers Kusal Mendis and de Silva got the chase off to a fluid start, adding 50 in the powerplay to seize early advantage, the latter surviving a close caught-behind appeal followed by a run-out chance. De Silva fell to Gareth Delany for 31 in the ninth over, but that did little to deter Sri Lanka’s progress, with Mendis getting to his second-straight fifty with a pair of fours, before closing out the game with a soaring six over square leg.
Mendis struck five fours and three sixes in an unbeaten 68 off 43, while getting fine support from Charith Asalanka (31* off 22), as Sri Lanka stormed through with five overs remaining. The emphatic win has got their net run-rate (NRR) to a solid 2.467.
Brief scores
Sri Lanka 133/1 from 15 overs (Mendis 68*, Asalanka 31*) beat Ireland 128/8 (Tector 45, Theekshana 2-19, Hasaranga 2-25) by nine wickets
