Sri Lanka gave their qualification hopes a major boost with a commanding 79-run win against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in their second First Round Group A match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia.
Having been put into bat, Sri Lanka dominated the opening proceedings reaching 117-2 after 14 overs, but were pegged back brilliantly by a hat trick from Karthik Meiyappan, reaching 152 for eight.
In reply, UAE were limited to 73 all out in 17.1 overs.
Meiyappan, the 22-year-old Chennai-born leg spinner, bamboozled the middle order and put a stop to any notion of a score beyond 180 with his three for 19 off four overs.
Opener Pathum Nissanka anchored the innings with 74 off 60 balls and got his side to the competitive total.
In reply the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were unable to cope with the opposition’s pace bowlers and lost four wickets for just 21 runs in the powerplay.
Dushmantha Chameera was particularly menacing with his three for 15 in 3.5 overs, but unfortunately succumbed to injury and went off. Wanindu Hasaranga was the other top performer with the ball taking three for eight off four overs as the UAE were bowled out for just 73 runs in 17.1 overs.
Sri Lanka face Netherlands on Thursday, knowing that a win will qualify them for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022/2023 but they will be without Dushmantha Chameera. UAE will need a spectacular win against Namibia and results to go their way to qualify.
In the other Group A match, Netherlands beat Namiba by five wickets.
Summarised scores:
Namibia 121-6 in 20 overs (Jan Frylinck 43; Bas de Leede 2-18). Netherlands 122-5 in 19.3 overs (Vikramjit Singh 39; JJ Smit 2-24). Netherlands won by 5 wickets.