Sri Lanka beat Zimbabwe dealing a potentially fatal blow to the African side’s quest of securing a direct World Cup spot, and kept their Cricket World Cup qualification hopes on track while still remaining unbeaten.

The two teams, who have been the pacesetters at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier 2023, entered the game and Sri Lanka set an early upset for the Chevrons, as their opener Joylord Gumbie was out for 0 runs in five deliveries, having registered the lowest opening stand in this tournament for Zimbabwe.

Having won the toss, Sri Lanka opted to bowl first, and Zimbabwe set 165 on the scoreboard as they were all out at the end of 32.2 overs.

Captain Craig Ervine hit 14 runs in 13 balls, Sean Williams made 56, and Sikandar Raza scored 31 in 51 deliveries.

Maheesh Theekshana picked-up 04 wickets towards Sri Lanka’s victory, while Dilshan Madushanka took 03, Matheesha Pathirana 02 and captain Dasun Shanaka took 01 wicket.

Sri Lanka, chasing the target of 165 for victory, made steady progress from the beginning with the strong 103 run-partnership made by opener Pathum Nissanka and Dimuth Karunaratne, before Karunaratne was out for 30 runs.

Sri Lanka reached the 165 target in just 33.1 overs with opener Pathum Nissanka’s century steering Sri Lanka towards the big win with a boundary off the final delivery. Nissanka was unbeaten with 101* runs while Kusal Mendis also made 25* runs.