By Trevor Makonyonga
Sri Lanka did just enough to draw against hosts, Zimbabwe in the second test against Zimbabwe to seal the Test Series 1-0 after a hard fought second test.
Zimbabwe carried a 354 lead going into the fifth day and captain Sean Williams decided to bat till he got his third half century before he declared with a 360 lead.
Sri Lanka then came in to bat chasing 360. The visitors started their innings showing their intention to go all out for a draw.
Right when they seemed to have gathered momentum, in the 14th over debutant Carl Mumba struck taking Dimuth Karunaratne (12) after he went for a slow ball nicking it into the gloves of Regis Chakabva.
Sikandar Raza Butt then trapped Oshada Fernando (47) lbw with a straight ball to collect his eighth wicket of the match and first of the innings.
Victor Nyauchi then took Angelo Mathews (13) as he hit one towards Craig Ervine at short mid on.
The peak of the Indian Ocean Islanders was Kusal Mendis who hit 116 off 133.
Zimbabwe seemed content to play for a draw in the first session as they did not really attack the batsmen even after the breakthrough the bowling attack was not convincing.
Only Sikandar Raza Butt was showing signs of agression consistently as he had two more lbw appeals turned down.
Angelo Mathews was named Man of the series whilst Sikandar Raza Butt was man of the match.
Sri Lanka made 293 & 204/3 wbilst Zimbabwe 406 and 247/7 declared.
Sikandar Raza took 8 wickets, Victor Nyauchi and Carl Mumba had 2 wickets each whilst Donald Tiripano had one.
For Sri Lanka Lasith Embuldeniya took six wickets. Dhanjaya de Silva, Lahiru Kumara and Suranga Lakmal had 3 wickets each while Vishwa Fernando had 2 wickets.
Man of the Series Angelo Mathews had 277 runs, Kusal Mendis 218 and Sean Williams had 217 runs in the series.