Harare
Suranga Lakmal took down Zimbabwe’s top three first thing in the morning, Lahiru Kumara blasted out the tail late in the day, and in between, Sri Lanka’s attack squeezed enough life out of a still-docile Harare surface to seize victory on day five. Zimbabwe scored enough runs to make Sri Lanka bat again, but the visiting openers needed only three overs to knock off the 14 runs required. Lakmal, who took 4 for 27, and Kumara, who took 3 for 32, had done most of the day’s heavy lifting.
Zimbabwe did resist, but in fits and starts. After the openers and No. 3 Craig Ervine had been removed for within eight runs of each other, inside the first six overs of the day, captain Sean Williams and Brendan Taylor launched a counterattack, targeting Sri Lanka’s frontline spinner Lasith Embuldeniya in particular, perhaps reasoning that he was the biggest threat to Zimbabwe on a day five surface, after he had already taken five wickets in the first innings. They hit Embuldeniya out of the attack but couldn’t survive the seamers after lunch as Lakmal made Taylor his fourth victim, and Kasun Rajitha removed Williams.—Agencies
