Clinical Sri Lanka drub Oman to surge to the top of Group B

Led by blazing half-centuries from Kusal Mendis, Pavan Rathnayake and Dasun Shanaka, Sri Lanka registered a comfortable 105-run win over Oman in Pallekele on Thursday (February 12). Their second successive victory of the tournament has taken them to the top of the Group B points table.

The result was along expected lines and the hosts broke little sweat in ensuring that they were largely ahead in the game. Despite the margin of the victory though, Oman did push Sri Lanka at several points in the game. Most notably at the start of the sixth over after Sri Lanka were put in to bat. Sufyan Mehmood, beginning his spell, had Pathum Nissanka trapped leg before on 13. With both the openers departing cheaply, Sri Lanka were reduced to 42 for 2.

However, Rathanayake ensured there was no reason for the hosts to remain on the backfoot. He crunched three boundaries off the next four deliveries to flip the momentum. Over the next five overs though, Sri Lanka were fairly calculative with their aggression. Barring the 10th over, in which Wasim Ali bowled a couple of no-balls and was taken apart for 17 runs, Sri Lanka's flow of boundaries was kept in control. However, by then the partnership had swelled to 72, and with ample firepower to follow, both the batters switched gears.

Kusal Mendis began the 13th over by lofting Mehmood for a boundary over short fine, and Rathanayake followed that up by crunching three successive boundaries, the first of which helped him raise his half-century. He was cleaned up in the next over and Oman controlled the scoring for a while. But Dasun Shanaka, the new batter in, soon started to cut loose. Over the next couple of overs, he smoked five sixes and two boundaries en route to a 19-ball half-century, the fastest by a Sri Lankan in T20Is.

Jiten Ramanandi struck twice in the penultimate over, but Kamindu Mendis provided the late flourish, ending Sri Lanka's innings with two sixes.

The mammoth target would have always been a stiff task for Oman, and they never threatened to chase it down. Dushmantha Chameera and Maheesh Theekshana combined to reduce them to 36 for 3 in the PowerPlay, with the top three dismissed for single-digit scores. For a brief while, Mohammad Nadeem and Wasim Ali provided a fighting display with the bat, in contrasting fashion, but they were nowhere close to the required rate. Nonetheless, a 42-run stand by them through the middle overs set the stage for at least a respectable score for Oman as none of the batters to follow managed to go past four runs.

Wasim was caught behind off Theekshana in the 12th over, a bizarre late decision by the umpire. That dismissal triggered a collapse as Oman lost four wickets over the next 13 balls, which included a couple of run outs.

Nadeem waged a lone battle in vain, and had the company of the last two batters - Jay Odedra and Shah Faisal - as he brought up his half-century and ensured Oman played out their share of overs.

Brief Scores:Sri Lanka 225/5 in 20 overs (Kusal Mendis 61, Pavan Rathnayake 60, Dasun Shanaka 50; Jiten Ramanandi 2-41) beat Oman 120/9 in 20 overs (Mohammad Nadeem 53*; Maheesh Theekshana 2-11, Dushmantha Chameera 2-19) by 105 runs