Sri Lanka vs Ireland, 15th Match, Group B at Bulawayo, CWC Qualifier, Jun 25 2023 - Match Result

Until the next one, this is Rvel Zahid waving goodbye on behalf of Peter Della Penna and our scoring guru K Vairavan.

Hasaranga is the real deal! He spun a web around Ireland's batters and kept shedding wickets at regular intervals as the batters continued to play reckless shots and it looked like they gave up the chase too early against a superior bowling attack. Hasaranga adds another feather to his cap by bagging three fifers in consecutive ODIs. Ireland's hopes are dashed as this resounding victory from Sri Lanka paves the way for Scotland and Oman to reach the Super Six stage. The early departure of their swashbuckling opening batter Stirling and then their lynchpin Balbirnie were major blows. Thereon, Ireland could never really recover from that early jolt. On the other hand, Sri Lanka ticked all the boxes; it was a complete performance from them in all departments of the game.

Dimuth Karunaratne struck a fluent, careful, precise and majestic century and he was complimented brilliantly by Sadeera Samarawickrama, who made 82, as the lower middle-order batters didn't squander the good start and the likes of Charisth Asalanka and Dhananjaya de Silva's breezy cameos pushed the score past 300. Mark Adair was the pick of the bowlers for Ireland, returning figures of 4/46 while Gareth Delany kept things quiet in his spell, conceding 52 runs in his 10 and chipped in with two scalps. Barry McCarthy leaked 62 in nine overs and snapped up three wickets. In reply, Ireland didn't have answers to the probing stuff and succumbed to the scoreboard pressure. They were under the cosh throughout the innings and tried to counter-attack Sri Lanka's bowlers but would lose the plot after hitting a couple of boundaries and the combative approach didn't really work in their favor and there were no big partnerships.

Dasun Shanaka, Sri Lanka captain: "Everything goes in the right direction, but we could have done better with the bat towards the end. Probably big hitting from myself and Wanindu did not come off in the last two matches. I have to stand up in these situations. We need to have a look at both options...we need to take a look at the bench and also take maximum points into the next round. Chameera is going to be key in the next round. We are very confident and are playing (according) to the conditions. We need to do well whatever the conditions here going forward."

Andrew Balbirnie, Ireland captain: "We would have probably liked a few more inroads early on. We fought back well and kept them down to a score we thought we could have a crack on but we did not bat well and did not start well. We knew it was a pretty good pitch, we knew they had good spinners and they bowled well and cleaned us up. Hugely disappointing not to get to the super sixes but you got to move on. We are going to pick ourselves up quickly, whenever you play for Ireland there's a lot of pride regardless of the situation and that's what we got to play for in the next game."

Dimuth Karunaratne, Player of the Match: "If I get a start, I want to go for the big one. In the morning, there was something for the bowlers, but when the swing stops we can get some boundaries. I was waiting for that, the first hour was about giving the bowlers respect. I try to apply the same technique, that is what has helped me score heavily in Test cricket...don't try to hit them hard, just time them well."

David : "I know the game is over but for the record, what is hurting Irish cricket is that overnight the county game was barred for Irish players. The previous generation developed in county cricket and the current generation is trying to develop is a mickey mouse quality set-up. I envy Scotland horribly that they get to develop their players in county cricket where In Ireland they basically learn the game playing international cricket!!"

David: "Charles, I'm saying that the majority of these Irish players are not up to it or are horribly out of form. We never replaced the last generation. We have a handful of south Africans (as do Scotland) but if you see the likes of Oman or even the Netherlands they rely on the expat community. Ireland should do the same as the development pathway are not working as well as they should."

Praveen: "All this firepower! Some sensible batting would have meant a good fight."

Praveen: "The only problem here is defining "home grown" players. This is best left to a nation's rules regarding who can represent them. Not the prerogative of the ICC."

Absolutely pummeled!

Sonty: "Nepal have 100 ℅ home grown players in the squad, similarly Ireland have 90℅. And these nation struggling here. ICC should some rules to strict nation to play 90℅ home grown players. "

Charles: "What are you talking about David? Scotland don't have any test nation stars. Ireland have Test status, they need to step up!"

Namith: "Has somebody given Ireland a dare to keep their run rate above that of Sri Lanka's?"