Zimbabwe has shocked the Sri Lankan team and the entire cricket world by defeating Sri Lanka in a hard fought One Day International series by 3-2 on Sri Lankan soil itself. Zimbabwe has defeated a full member team after 16-years in a series and their first away from home after they defeated Kenya in 2009.
In the first match itself, Zimbabwe chased down a mammoth of 316 in the first match of the series itself, lost the second and third ODI and came back strong to win the series by 3-2. Hamilton Masakadza, with 258 runs in 5 innings was the highest run scorer for Zimbabwe in the series. While Srilankan Danushka Gunathilaka, with 323 runs was the highest run scorer of the series.
Zimbabwe once used to be a solid team to play against even by the top-seeded teams when they had the likes of Heath Streak and the Flower brothers by their side. They had defeated many big teams in their good days, including teams like Austrailia and India. They even reached the Super-6 league of the ICC World Cup 2003 in South Africa. But after them, the team has not done anything recognizable in the cricketing world. Bangladesh and Zimbabwe used to play a lot of cricket with each other but after Bangladesh surpasses Zimbabwe in every format of the game Zimbabwean cricket has been in turmoil. It can be said that Zimbabwean cricket saw its darkest days just a few months ago when Afghanistan defeated them in an ODI series by 2-3 at home.
While Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews has said that everything went against them in this game and it’s the lowest point of his career “It’s one of the lowest points in my career, and a hard one to swallow.”
