5.45pm If bowing out early, in heartbreaking fashion, from the Champions Trophy wasn't enough, Sri Lanka have endured another crushing blow. This is the highest successful chase ever in Sri Lanka, in 296 ODIs. How's that for a record? The heroes? Solomon Mire, who set the pace. Sean Williams who carried on to bring the chase within a 100 runs, and Sikandar Raza for ensuring the good work done by those two didn't go to waste. How easy have they made it look? Worrying signs for Sri Lanka. The bowling was toothless. The fielding? Well, it wasn't any better. This is also the first time Zimbabwe have beaten Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka. Surely it merits a big party tonight!
There's plenty of post-match coverage. Andrew Fernando's bulletin will be up shortly, for those who want to relive a special chase. Hope you join us for the second ODI on Sunday. Until then, this is Shashank Kishore saying goodbye on behalf of Akshay Gopalakrishnan. Cheers!
Dinesh: "Zimbabwe had that reputation of being the giant killers in the early 2000s and now, well and truly, they are back on big stage. Chasing 300 in Sri Lanka against Sri Lanka is incredible effort. Take a bow" Can't let one big effort mask all that's happened in between. As Cremer said, one step at a time.
Solomon Mire is the Player of the match.
Graeme Cremer: Very special! To chase down a score like that to post our first win here was amazing. For our batting to chase the total down, special. Mire is a real asset to the team, not just with the bat but also with the ball. He's lovely to watch. We just want to take it one game at a time. We can hopefully carry this confidence forward.
Angelo Mathews: Having 315 on the board, I thought it was enough. Our bowling was poor and our fielding was pathetic. It was a good batting effort by them. The wicket was playing a little slower. I thought we had the bowling to defend this.
Sikandar Raza: The selectors and coaches have shown consistency. A lot of cricket behind us has helped us pull off this fantastic win. I kept saying myself that this had to be for Solomon. For someone to play in this kind of heat after bowling his heart out, that was sensational. I wanted to do it for him.
Sean Williams: Solomon and I spoke about taking ones and twos, and batting till the 40th over. We wanted to play the sweeps and reverse-sweeps to keep the runs ticking.
END OF OVER:47 | 9 Runs | ZIM: 312/4 (5 runs required from 18 balls, RR: 6.63, RRR: 1.66)
- Sikandar Raza58 (53b)
- Malcolm Waller39 (28b)
- Akila Dananjaya10-0-61-1
- Nuwan Pradeep9-1-52-0
END OF OVER:46 | 8 Runs | ZIM: 303/4 (14 runs required from 24 balls, RR: 6.58, RRR: 3.50)
- Malcolm Waller37 (26b)
- Sikandar Raza52 (49b)
- Nuwan Pradeep9-1-52-0
- Akila Dananjaya9-0-53-1
END OF OVER:45 | 4 Runs | ZIM: 295/4 (22 runs required from 30 balls, RR: 6.55, RRR: 4.40)
- Sikandar Raza50 (47b)
- Malcolm Waller31 (22b)
- Akila Dananjaya9-0-53-1
- Nuwan Pradeep8-1-44-0
Avadhesh: "This chase is very similar to chase of SL against India in CT. Early wickets, no one expected the chase will be achieved, but useful contribution throughout and chase done easily"