SL vs AUS: Dasun Shanaka meets young fan whose celebration in 3rd T20I went viral

Sri Lanka’s limited-overs skipper Dasun Shanaka made the day of a young fan who went viral for his celebration after the home team won the third and final match of the T20I series against Australia last Saturday. The Sri Lanka cricket board posted a picture of the all-rounder sitting beside the fan with a smile on his face. Shanaka himself shared a small video of young fans celebrating the team’s win at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on his official Twitter handle.

Notably, Shanaka was the main reason for the fan’s jovial celebration in Pallekele. Sri Lanka had already lost the three-match series with two defeats in the first two matches. But the skipper played a captain’s knock in the last match, scoring an unbeaten 54 off 25 balls while chasing a big target of 177 runs. Sri Lanka scored 59 runs in their last three overs, including two fours and a six by Shanaka in the final over. This triumph got the home fans off their seats as the entire stadium went berserk.

Meanwhile, Shanaka had revealed how he planned to clear the ropes in slog overs and also stated that it was a great win for the team. “It was a huge joy to me to be able to play an innings like that. There are very few innings like that. My plan was to hit three boundaries an over in the last three overs. That would mean 54 runs [if all the boundaries were sixes]. With the singles we would get, there’d be a chance. There was a chance it would all go wrong, but I was able to do my best. It was a great win – not just for me, but the whole country,” Shanaka said after the match.

This win will definitely boost up his team’s morale as they face Australia in a five-match ODI series. Sri Lanka will fancy their chances with key players Wanindu Hasaranga and Dhananjaya de Silva returning to the squad. However, tackling the Aussies won’t be easy by any means.