Dasun Shanaka’s team defeated the Irish by a huge margin of 9 wickets with 30 balls remaining. Irish captain Andrew Balbirnie won the toss and elected to bat in the third match of the Super Twelve at Bellerive Oval today. Ireland collected 128 runs after losing 8 wickets in the scheduled 20 overs in the whirlwind of Hasaranga and Thiksana.

And in 15 overs Sri Lanka accumulated 133 runs by defeating the opener, Dhananjaya de Silva. Delaney broke the opening pair of 63 runs by sending Dhananjaya back to Sajghar on the second ball of the 8th over. Dhananjaya got out after scoring 31 runs off 25 balls. Then opener Kushal Mendis accompanied Asalanka the rest of the way.

Mendis played an innings of 68 runs off 43 balls with 5 boundaries and 3 sixes. Charith Asalanka scored 31 runs off 22 balls after one down. Before this, the Lankan bowlers bowled with the ball in hand. Thiksana gave the least runs. He took two wickets with 19 runs in 4 overs. Hasaranga, the team’s best spinner, got two wickets despite giving 25 runs.

However, pacer Lahiru Kumara caught the first break in the Irish camp. He bowled opener Andy Balbirnie (1 run) when he came to bowl the first ball in the team’s second over. Ireland lost their first wicket by 3 runs. In the 5th over, Thiksana sent Lorcan Tucker home for 10 runs off 11 balls. Irish star Paul Sterling scored 16 runs in the next over. The great performer of the last match scored 16 runs in that over of Karunaratne.

As a result, Ireland lost 2 wickets and scored 40 runs in the power play. Stirling made great progress with Harry Tector. But he could not go far. Sterling took a catch at deep extra cover on the 4th delivery of Dhananjaya de Silva in the ninth over. The Irish star stopped at 34 runs off 25 balls when Bhanuka Rajapaksha took it.

After Sterling’s return to the dressing room, Ireland continued to take wickets at regular intervals. Karunaratne sent the middle-order batter Camper back to the crease with the last ball of the 10th over. He scored just 2 runs before being caught by Asalanka at the point.
After that Tector touched the team collection of 100 by losing 4 wickets in 15 overs without causing any danger. In the 17th over, the pair broke the 50-run stand when Dockrell got out to Thikhsana. Dockrell returned with 14 runs off 16 balls after being bowled directly by Thikhsana.

Harry Tector also returned to the dressing room with the last ball of the 18th over. His 45 from 42 balls came from his bat, the highest for the team, before being palmed by Shanaka off Fernando. Spinner Hasaranga took two wickets in the 19th over. At this time, Ireland’s score stood at 120 for 8 wickets. Tail end Simi Singh can score 8 runs in the last over.