Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana took two wickets each in a brilliant bowling performance as Sri Lanka restricted Ireland to a paltry 128/8 in 20 overs in a Super 12 match of the Men's T20 World Cup at the Bellerive Oval on Sunday.
Sri Lanka, the 2014 T20 World Cup champions, were disciplined and economical, especially their spin twins, Theekshana and Hasaranga. They began by using a lot of fast bowlers in the first half of Ireland's innings, before unleashing the leg-spin plus off-spin due of Hasaranga and Theekshana to stem their run-flow in the later half.
Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie fell cheaply, as pacer Lahiru Kumara disturbed his stumps while trying to go for an audacious ramp. Paul Stirling held one end and was smashing boundaries off Chamika Karunaratne as well as Dhananjaya de Silva.
But his dismissal at the halfway stage, as Bhanuka Rajapaksa took a low catch at wide mid-off, let Sri Lanka take full control of the innings of de Silva. With his wily variations, Theekshana began by rattling Lorcan Tucker's middle-stump in the fifth over.
With Curtis Campher and George Dockrell falling cheaply, Harry Tector anchored one end by taking the attack to Karunaratne, Hasaranga and Theekshana. Just as he looked to go big, a mis-hit on a juicy full-toss off Fernando ended his stay at 45. Hasaranga took out Gareth Delany and Mark Adair in the 19th over as Sri Lanka picked 4/28 in the last five overs.
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Brief scores: Ireland 128/8 in 20 overs (Harry Tector 45, Paul Stirling 34; Maheesh Theekshana 2/19, Wanindu Hasaranga 2/25) against Sri Lanka.