Pallekele: Sri Lanka skipper Dasun Shanaka’s blinder of an innings — he scored an unbeaten 54 off just 25 balls at an amazing strike rate of 216 in the match-winning performance against Australia in the third T20I — has helped the host to a record, which is unlikely to be broken in international cricket in the years to come.
Soon after the pair of Shanaka and Chamika Karunaratne (14 off 10 balls) helped the team to a four-wicket win with one ball remaining, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) tweeted, “Chasing down 59 in the final three overs is the most scored by any team to win a game in the last three overs.”
Sri Lanka were chasing 176 for victory and it seemed Australia would make a 3-0 clean sweep of the series, but Shanaka tuned the tide in the last three overs, smashing five boundaries and four maximums.
Fans took to twitter and asked Shanaka to dedicate the win to the people of Sri Lanka, who have seen extremely tough times in recent months in the aftermath of a financial crisis.
“@dasunshanaka1 you should dedicate this win to all the Sri Lankan people,” tweeted a fan, while an Indian fan wrote, “As an Indian fan, loved the way the Lankans fought back at the end. For me the pic of the game was this father-son moment. Given all the recent economic strife n uncertainty in SL, it’s great to see cricket bringing such joy. #SLVSAUS.”
–IANS
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