Hambantota Bangla Tigers beat favorites Jaffna Titans by 26 runs in Thursday’s Lanka T10 Super League final at the Pallekele Stadium in Kandy.

The Tigers produced a fine all-round performance to beat the Titans, who had won all their matches in the lead up to the final.

Player of the match and player of the series was Titan’s skipper Dasun Shanaka.

Hambantota Bangla Tigers, put into bat first, posted 133 for seven from their allotted 10 overs through some useful contributions from their top order batsmen.

The openers Mohammad Shahzad and Kusal Perera added 35 runs from 2.4 overs before they suffered a middle order collapse and reached 59 for three at the halfway stage of the innings.

However, skipper Dasun Shanaka and Shevon Daniel revived the innings with a fourth-wicket partnership of 44 runs in three overs.

Shanaka made 21 with two sixes and two boundaries while Daniel struck 26 with one six and three boundaries before Kennar Lewis and Dhananjaya Lakshan added the finishing touches.

Chasing 133 runs for victory, Jaffna Titans lost wickets at regular intervals and they eventually finished at 107 for six despite a fighting unbeaten half century from middle order batsman Tom Abell.
Richard Gleeson wrecked the Hambantota Bangla Tigers’ innings with excellent figures of three wickets for 21 while Shanaka captured two wickets for four runs.

Afghanistan defeated Zimbabwe by 232 runs in the second ODI on Thursday to secure a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Sent to bat first by Zimbabwe who won the toss, Afghanistan posted 286-6 in Harare.

Sediqullah Atal scored 104, his first hundred in an international match. Abdul Malik followed with 84.

In reply, Zimbabwe scored 54 runs before being bowled out in the 17.5 overs.

Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar and Naweed Zadran took three wickets each. Fazlullah Farooqi picked up two wickets and Azmatullah Omarzai one.

This was the second match of the ODI series between Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. The first was abandoned due to rain.

The third and final game of the series will be played on Saturday.

Heavy rain led to the abandonment of the first one day international between Zimbabwe and Afghanistan at the Harare Sports Club on Tuesday.

Afghanistan won the toss and put the hosts into bat but it took four hours before any play was possible, with the game by then reduced to a 28 overs per side.

Azmatullah Omarzai took 4-18 in 4.2 overs as the visitors made good inroads to have Zimbabwe 44-5 in the 10th over before the rain returned and ended hope of further play.

The second of the three match ODI series will be played at the same venue on Thursday.