Zimbabwe chokes again to lose series 5-0 by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka
Player:	SHT Kandamby, DPMD Jayawardene, AD Mathews, M Muralitharan, KM Dabengwa, P Utseya, T Taibu, EC Rainsford, T Mupariwa
Event:	Sri Lanka in Zimbabwe 2008/09

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DateLine: 2nd December 2008

 

Zimbabwe fought well to get to within 22 runs of the Sri Lankan target, with four wickets in hand, but then threw it all away to lose the five match series, 5-0. Muthiah Muralitharan was the Man-of-the-Match with a five-wicket haul.

 

Batting first after being put in by Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka had another woeful start when they lost their first three wickets with 23 runs on the board. S. Kadamby and Kumara Sangakkara did manage to halt the procession, but once Kadamby departed, the only other Sri Lankan to show any resolve was A. Mathews, who scored 31. Sri Lanka ended with 152. Ed Rainsford captured three visitors’ wickets for 22 runs, while T. Mupariwa got two.

 

In reply, Zimbabwe lost wickets in a hurry to the duo of Dilhara Fernando and Muralitharan and limped to 58/6 in just over 12 overs. It was here that Keith Dabengwa and skipper Prosper Utseya got together and added a neat 72 runs to get to 130/6 with almost 10 overs to go. However, with a win looking a huge possibility for the hosts, they choked to lose the last four wickets for three runs to Nuwan Kulasekera (3/14) to lose by 19 runs.

 

Muralitharan had a match haul of 5/29 in their ten overs, and won the Man-of-the-Match award, while Ajantha Mendis won the Man-of-the-Series prize.