Image Credit- Getty
Janith Liyanage, playing in just his second One-Day
International, delivered a game-changing performance that led his team to an
exciting 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 heavier during the roughly thirty
minutes of play, the hosts would eventually limp to their goal of 209 points.
Liyanage clarified that the rain, not the score or the goal of hitting a
century, was what forced him to take the risk in the 43rd over.
“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.”
“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. “