Sri Lanka bounced back from their opening match defeat against Namibia by trouncing UAE in the T20 World Cup by 79 runs to firmly get themselves back in contention for the Super 12s stage.
Put into bat first at Kardinia Park, Sri Lanka relied on Pathum Nissanka’s 74 runs to reach 152/8 from their 20 overs.
Nissanka’s partnership with Kusal Mendis (18 runs) and Dhananjaya de Silva (33 runs) looked to have set his side for a huge total with Sri Lanka sitting at 92-2 when de Silva was run out.
But the game turned on its head in the 15th over when Karthik Meiyappan claimed the first hat-trick of the tournament by removing Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Charith Asalanka and Dasun Shanaka on consecutive deliveries.
Hasaranga’s dismissal in the very next over added more misery for Sri Lanka before Nissanka took charge of the innings with a late barge to set a challenging total for the minnows.
In reply, the gulf between the two sides really came to the fore as UAE folded for 73 with Sri Lanka’s Dushmantha Chameera and Hasaranga de Silva doing the majority of the damage.
Chirag Suri smashed a couple of boundaries in the first over to flirt with the idea of an upset before Chameera went to work with three quick strikes and UAE never recovered from thereon.
Hasaranga finished with three wickets as well for just 8 runs from his 4 overs, Maheesh Theekshana took two and Pramod Madushan Liyanagamage and Dasun Shanaka accounted for one wicket each.
The only worry for Sri Lanka is that Chameera went off injured while bowling his final over of the day.
A healthy win over UAE means Sri Lanka has a little wiggle room in their upcoming match against the Netherlands but they still must beat the surging side in order to stand a chance of reaching the super 12 stage of the competition.
