Dasun Shanaka smashed Shaheen Shah Afridi for three consecutive sixes off the final over in a cameo unbeaten 76 off 31 balls 8 sixes blaze, bringing Sri Lanka from the oblivion of 101 for 6 after 12 overs to one step from victory needing 28 off the final over hammering Shaheen Shah Afridi for 22 off the first four deliveries 4, 6, 6, 6 with six more required from the last two, but a wide off stump yorker dot ball that left him no width in a failed reverse scoop and a final tight wide dot ball he couldn’t reach, but the umpire let it go, denied Sri Lanka of what would have been a famous win, but Shanaka did win the battle of stopping Pakistan from advancing to the semi finals of the ICC T20 World Cup where the co-hosts had to be bowled out for under 148 in what once looked a one horse race before a sixth wicket partnership of 61 off 33 balls between Pavan Rathnayake 58 off 37 balls with 3 sixes and 4 across and Shanaka turned the game on in what turned out to be a hell fire contest following a tournament record breaking century by Pakistan’s Sahibzada Farhan off 60 (9×4, 6×5) in a highest world cup first wicket 175 partnership between Fakhar Zaman 84 off 42 (9×4, 6×4) at Kandy’s Pallekelle International Cricket Stadium yesterday.
Farhan did blaze in a glory day of the mammoth in Player of the Match high in his 60 ball blaze as the right hander reeled of world cup records lowering India’s Virat Kohli’s long time world cup highest aggregate of 319 set up at the 2014 world cup by a tournament 383 aggregate averaging 76.60 as well as becoming the only batsman to score two centuries in a T20 world cup while combining with Fakhar Zaman in setting up the highest world cup first wicket partnership of 176 in breaking the 175 record between New Zealand’s Finn Allen and Tim Seifert versus the UAE in the same tournament.
But the day finally hugely belonged to the Sri Lankan captain as Shanaka came just one stroke from what would have made him the day’s hero, that final six runs eluding his bat by the near wide penultimate delivery and the close call final delivery that was also close to a wide that forced him to leave.
His unfinished 45 seventh wicket alliance off 14 balls between Dunith Wellalage whose contribution was a mere 2 off 3 balls when Shanaka largely hogged the strike told the story of Shanaka’s near impossible onslaught of what would have been a glorious victory, the agony of that ecstacy in that final failed six that the wicked dot ball depth denied him.
Shanaka together with Pavan Rathnayake, who carried Sri Lanka’s fight from the lows of top order shambles, did though win the day for Sri Lanka in stopping Pakistan in their tracks of what once looked a certain semi final stroll in the park when the Lankans were tottering on 101 for 6 with just 8 overs left. It did signify the enthralling part of T20s as all New Zealand for once kept their fingers crossed praying for their once foes in the tournament to stop Pakistan as they prayed for ari Lankan victory.
Pakistan 212 for 8 (Farhan 100, Fakhar 84, Madushanka 3-33) beat Sri Lanka 207 for 6 (Shanaka 76*, Rathnayake 58, Kamil Mishara 26, Charith Asalanka 25, Abrar 3-23) by five runs
