OTD | 11th-ranked Zimbabwe created history with their ODI Series win against Sri Lanka in 2017

The game of cricket has always been one of the most unpredictable sports where the game can always turn in anyone’s favour. Those circumstances can lead to many games being lost and won by teams who are not even one of the best in the rankings. It is always a treat to watch the underdog team beat a former World champion team in a game and create history in the tournament.

One of the underachieving teams in international cricket is Zimbabwe, which might not look like the strongest team based on record but has had some great moments in the game of cricket. One of the moments came in 2017 when the team were no longer a top 10-ranked team and was close to losing their Test status as well. They were set to play an ODI series in Sri Lanka which was still a well-established playing nation in the cricketing world.

The ODI series where the African nation created history

This was a fascinating series where we saw a strong-looking Sri Lankan side which featured great players like Upul Tharanga and Angelo Matthews with the bat and reliable bowlers like Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara. However, this did not stop the Zimbabwe players from showing resilience in this series. The 5-match series went down to the wire where the series was tied 2-2 with one game to go. The game was in Hambantota, where we saw the Lankan lions be restricted to just 203 runs by the Zimbabwe bowlers with only half-centuries from Danushka Gunathalika and Asela Gunaratne to look back on.

This was already a disappointing setback for Sri Lanka who did not have a lot of runs to defend. Lasith Malinga and Akila Dananjaya managed to get the team back in the game, but Zimbabwe still came back at them with some great knocks from Hamilton Masakadza, Solomon Mire and Sikandar Raza to make sure they chased down the target and win the match by 3 wickets and win the series beating Sri Lanka at home. This was one of the historic moments for Zimbabwe cricket which we never saw coming.

Also read: Karen Rolten seized the record for highest score in Women’s Test