Pathum Nissanka took the Australian bowling attack to the cleaners.
Set a target of 182, the hosts rode on Nissanka's unbeaten 100 off 52 balls and Kusal Mendis's 38-ball 51 to complete the task in 18 overs and leave Australia's Super 8 qualification hopes hanging by a thread. Pavan Rathnayake remained not out on 28 off 15 balls.
Nissanka’s match-winning knock was studded with 10 fours and 5 sixes, earning him the Player-of-the-Match award. It was the first three-figure score by a batter in this T20 World Cup.
With this win, Sri Lanka sealed a place in Super 8s. On the other hand, Australia will now need to win by a massive margin against Oman in their final group-stage match and rely on both Sri Lanka and Ireland to beat Zimbabwe to have any sort of outside chance whatsoever.
For his scintillating hundred in the pressure chase, Pathum Nissanka received rich praise from the cricket fraternity on social media platform X.
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