Muttiah Muralitharan took five wickets as Sri Lanka completed a 5-0 whitewash over severely depleted Zimbabwe in the final one-day international on Thursday.
Sri Lanka won the match by 25 runs, the master off-spinner completing figures of five for 23 to help restrict Zimbabwe to 221 for nine in reply to the touring side's 246 for seven.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Russel Arnold top-scored for Sri Lanka with a fluent 51 off as many deliveries including five fours and a six, while opener Brendan Taylor contributed 74 for Zimbabwe.
Sri Lanka struggled to build momentum on the a pitch, relying on steady rather than spectacular batting from Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene following the dismissal of Saman Jayantha in the fifth over.
Captain Atapattu and Jayawardene added 72 runs for the second wicket before Atapattu attempted to drive a ball from medium pacer Tawanda Mupariwa and was caught by Stuart Matsikenyeri at long-off.
The visitors' scoring rate slowed to a trickle in the middle of the innings, with the Zimbabwe bowlers maintaining a disciplined line and length.
Arnold and Farveez Maharoof shared a stand of 71 from 48 balls for the seventh wicket, with Maharoof making 38 off 30 deliveries including two fours and two sixes.
The partnership was ended in the 49th over when Maharoof holed out to Douglas Hondo at long-on off seamer Tinashe Panyangara.
Captain and wicketkeeper Tatenda Taibu led by example when he stripped off his pads to bowl 10 overs of medium pace, taking two for 42.
The home side kept the upper hand until Arnold strode to the wicket in the 31st over after Tillakaratne Dilshan was run out for 21 by Dion Ebrahim.
Zimbabwe's reply began solidly with Matsikenyeri and Taylor putting on 79 for the first wicket before Muralitharan had the former stumped for 37 by stand-in wicketkeeper Dilshan, who replaced the injured Kumar Sangakkara.
Six overs later left-arm spinner Rangana Herath bowled Ebrahim for six, bringing Taibu to the wicket to share a third-wicket stand of 62 with Taylor.
Taibu became Muralitharan's second victim in the 39th over, and the last seven Zimbabwean wickets fell for 67 runs as the off spinner maintained a stranglehold on the middle and lower order.
Taylor was fourth out nine balls after Taibu when he pulled a delivery from left-arm spinner Herath to Jayantha on the mid-wicket boundary.
Zimbabwe selected an inexperienced squad for the series after 15 players refused to play in a dispute with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union.
Mediation
Meanwhile, the 15 Zimbabwe cricketers demanding the reinstatement of former captain Heath Streak want two international mediators to help end the damaging deadlock with the Zimbabwe Cricket Union.
The breakaway group have submitted a letter to the ZCU outlining this and other suggestions for what their lawyer Chris Venturas calls "a mechanism to resolve the issue."
This is not unlike the ZCU's proposal this week for a mediation process to be established but which was rejected as taking too long to set up by the players.
Two sticking points remain.
One is Heath Streak's dismissal as captain. The players continue to demand his reinstatement, which the ZCU refuses.
The other is the national selection panel. The players want one of the four selectors removed. The union says there is to be no further discussion on it.
Other details in the letter are not being disclosed by their representative, Chris Venturas. But he did say that it was not a unanimous decision by the players to submit the letter, although most of them insisted on the delivery.
The ZCU has been given until Tuesday to accept or reject the proposals but Venturas said: "I feel they will turn us down."
ZCU chief executive Vincent Hogg confirmed that the letter had been received but would add nothing further.
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