Thilan turns tragedy to triumph

By Samiddha Rathnayake

Sri Lanka’s saviour Thilan Samawaweera celebrates his maiden one-day century at the R Premadasa Stadium against New Zealand yesterday (Pix by Rukshan Abeywansha)

The Lankan pace trio of Lasith Malinga, Thilan Thushara and Nuwan Kulasekara joined hands with Thilan Samaraweera and Angelo Mathews to set up a convincing 97-run win for Sri Lanka in the opening match of the tri-nation Compaq Cup tournament played under lights at the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium yesterday.
Man of the match Samaraweera who scored his maiden ODI hundred and Mathews helped resurrect Sri Lanka’s innings with a century partnership after half the side was out for 69 in the 26th over.
Sri Lanka winning the toss and batting first scored 216-7 and bundled New Zealand out for 119 in 36.1 overs.
The Lankan lower middle order showed great character to fight back from a disastrous position to pose a sufficient total and the bowlers lived up to their reputation and picked up Kiwi wickets constantly to peg a smooth flow of runs.
The Lankan new ball pair was quite up to the task from the early stages itself as Thushara managed to strike in his first over capturing the wicket of in-form Jessie Ryder before he could bother the scorers. Guptill also didn’t last long as he edged an outswinger from Kulasekara to Sangakkara.

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