3 months ago
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Pavan Rathnayake and skipper Dasun Shanaka returned to signifier with blazing fifties, portion Kusal Mendis anchored the innings with different half-century arsenic Sri Lanka piled up a formidable 225 for 5 against Oman successful their Group B T20 World Cup clash successful Pallekele connected Thursday (February 12, 2026).
After a mediocre World Cup debut against Ireland wherever helium fell for sloppy precocious chopped for 5, Rathnayake made amends successful style, smashing a 28-ball 60 (8x4, 1x6).
He brought up his maiden T20I 50 successful conscionable 24 balls, overtaking his erstwhile champion of 40 astatine this venue earlier this month.
The 23-year-old charged pacer Jiten Ramanandi for the innings' archetypal six successful the 12th implicit and hammered Sufyan Mehmood for 3 successive fours to scope the milestone.
Rathnayake and the experienced Mendis added 94 runs disconnected conscionable 52 balls, maintaining a run-rate successful excess of 9 done the mediate overs.
They rotated onslaught smartly arsenic 40 of Sri Lanka's 96 runs astatine the halfway people came successful singles and twos.
Mendis, playing the elder partner's relation to perfection, capitalised connected width from the Oman spinners and struck 7 fours successful his 61 disconnected 45 balls, his 2nd successive 50 and 19th overall.
He was tally retired successful the penultimate over.
Shanaka, who had endured a thin build-up to the tourney with scores of 1, 4 and 0, exploded astatine the decease with a 19-ball 50 -- the fastest by a Sri Lankan successful the T20 World Cup.
He took connected Nadeem Khan with a bound and back-to-back sixes, and past smashed Sufyan Mehmood for successive sixes to scope the landmark.
Shanaka and Mendis fell disconnected consecutive deliveries successful the 19th over, concisely slowing the charge.
But Kamindu Mendis ended with a flourish, hitting Shah Faisal for 2 sixes successful a enactment arsenic the co-hosts scored 65 runs successful the past 4 overs to station the highest full of this variation truthful far.
Scoreboard
Sri Lanka innings: Pathum Nissanka lbw Mehmood 13 Kamil Mishara lbw Odedra 8 Kusal Mendis (run out) 61 Pavan Ratnayake b Jiten 60 Dasun Shanaka c Nadeem b Jiten 50 Kamindu Mendis (not out) 19 Dunith Wellalage (not out) 6 Extras (LB-4, NB-2, W-2) 8
Total (For 5 wickets, 20 overs) 225
Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-42, 3-136, 4-199, 5-200.
Oman bowling: Shah Faisal 4-0-28-0, Jay Odedra 1-0-14-1, Wasim Ali 3-0-38-0, Sufyan Mehmood 4-0-60-1, Nadeem Khan 4-0-40-0, Jiten Ramanandi 4-0-41-2.
