Sri Lanka Cricket Legends

It was started in 1832 by the Colombo Cricket Club. In the 1880s decade, the Ceylon national cricket team was formed. By the 1920s, First-class cricket was established playing. The Ceylon national cricket team had achieved associate member status of the International Cricket Council back in 1965. Renamed Sri Lanka in 1972, the national team first competed in top level international cricket in 1975 when they played against West Indies during 1975 Cricket World Cup; West Indies won the match by 9 wickets at Old Trafford, Manchester, England. [1]

After Sri Lanka were awarded Test status on 21 July 1981 as the eighth Test playing nation, they had to wait until 6 September 1985, where Sri Lanka's first win by beating India went down in history during the series, winning by 149 runs in the second match of the series at Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo. As of 10 July 2018, Sri Lanka have played 272 Test matches; they have won 86 matches, lost 101 matches, and 85 matches were drawn. They have also won the 2001-02 Asian Test Championship, defeating Pakistan in the final by an innings and 175 runs.

Sri Lanka registered their first ODI win against India at Manchester, England, on 16 June 1979.[6] As of 10 July 2018, Sri Lanka have played 816 ODI matches, winning 376 matches and losing 399; they also tied 5 matches, whilst 36 had no result.[7] They also won the 1996 Cricket World Cup,[8] co-champions in 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, and six times Asian champions in 1986, 1997, 2004, 2008, 2014, and 2022 Asia Cup.

Sri Lanka made their Twenty20 International (T20I) debut at the Rose Bowl on 15 June 2006 against England and won by 2 runs. They won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 by beating India by 6 wickets. As of 10 July 2018, Sri Lanka has played 108 matches in the abbreviated format of the game, with 54 wins and 52 losses, besides a tie and no-result games, respectively.

Of January 2016, Sri Lanka have played against all nine test playing nations, and the most has been against Pakistan, with 51 matches against them. Sri Lankan have managed to win more games against Pakistan and Bangladesh as compared to any other test playing nations with 14 wins for each country. In total, the Lankans have played against teams of 17 nations in ODIs with a 39.49% success rate in 149 match ups against India. From the generally known vibrant ODI playing nations, Lankans can boast of their best possible record against England with 34 wins. The team has played against 13 countries in T20Is, and have played 15 games against New Zealand. Sri Lanka have beaten Australia and West Indies on 6 occasions each. WAS THE world's best T20I TEAM, with a number-one ranking in excess of 32 months and reach World Twenty20 final in 3 times.

The Sri Lanka national cricket team represents Sri Lanka in international cricket and is a full member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) status.[15]

Early years[edit]

Cricket was brought to Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, by the British during the British Period. It is assumed the game was first played in the country by the early 1800s, though the first recorded cricket match was played in 1832. The first definite mention of cricket in Ceylon is a report in the Colombo Journal on 5 September 1832 which called for the formation of a cricket club. The Colombo Cricket Club was formed and matches began in November 1832.

In October 1882, Ivo Bligh's team played an odds game in Colombo en route to Australia, where they "recovered those Ashes". In 1888–89 an English team led by Georg Vernon toured Ceylon and India including an 11-a-side game against All-Ceylon at Kandy. In 1890, the Australian team en route to England played in Colombo.

Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) teams have visited on no less than 18 occasions since 1911–12, most recently in 2000–01.

Through 1911, there had been five English teams in Ceylon. Those were captained by Ivo Bligh in 1882–83; George Vernon in 1889–90; WG Grace in 1891–92; Lord Hawke in 1892–93; and Andrew Stoddart in 1894–95. The Bligh, Grace, and Stoddart teams were en route to Australia, while the Vernon and Hawke ventures took in on Ceylon as part of visits to India.

1920s–1960s[edit]

Season Opponent V

1926–27 Marylebone Cricket Club Viharamahadevi Park, Colombo 1 1

Totals 1 1

Other International matches

1926 Australians Colombo Cricket Club Ground, Colombo 1 1

1927 New Zealanders Colombo 1 1

Totals 2 1 1

1932–33

1936–37 7 Minor teams 2 Home, 5 Away 7 1 4 2

1932–33 India Lawrence Gardens, Lahore

Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi 2 2

1935–36 Australians Viharamahadevi Park, Colombo 1 1

Totals 10 1 4 5

1940–41

1945–46 3 Minor teams 1 Home, 3 Away 4 1 2 1

1944–45 India Colombo Oval, Colombo 1 1

1948–49 West Indians Colombo Oval, Colombo 2 1 1

1948–49 Pakistan Colombo Oval, Colombo 2 2

Totals 9 2 4 3

1949–50

1957–58 9 Minor teams 1 Home, 3 Away 11 3 3 5

1949–50 Pakistan Bagh-e-Jinnah, Lahore

Karachi Gymkhana Ground, Karachi 2 2

1956–57 India Colombo Oval, Colombo 2 2

Totals 15 3 5 7

1959–60

1968–69 10 Minor teams 3 Home, 12 Away 15 2 3 10

1964–65 India Central College Ground, Bangalore

Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, Hyderabad

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad 3 1 2

1966–67 Pakistan Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore

Dacca Stadium, Dacca

National Stadium, Karachi 3 3

1966–67 West Indies Colombo Oval, Colombo 1 1

1969–70 Australians Colombo Oval, Colombo 1 1

Totals 23 3 9 11

Ceylon played its first first-class match as Ceylon against Marylebone Cricket Club at Nomads Ground, Victoria Park, Colombo in 192

First-class cricket in Ceylon became restricted to games against visiting touring teams, notably the English and Australian their country. countries, which used Ceylon as a stopover on the long cij: oyage to each other's Douglas Jardine's infamous "bodyline team" was there in 1932–33. Occasionally, teams representative of Ceylon played matches abroad, especially in India. English team Sir Julien Cahn's Xl visited Ceylon in 1936–37.

April 1945 saw another India national cricket team visit to Ceylon, playing one first-class match against Ceylon at the Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo. The drawing concluded in a match on account of bad weather. India's team was an exceedingly strong one, captained by Vijay Merchant, featuring Shute Banerjee, Mushtaq Ali, Lala Amarnath, Vijay Hazare, and Rusi Modi.

Many Australian teams interrupted their tour to and from England, to stop and play games in Ceylon. The Australian Services cricket team toured Ceylon and India in 1945–46, its team included Keith Miller who scored a century in Colombo. He returned as part of the Australian cricket team to England in 1948 which played a game in Colombo as part of a 2-day stopover on their way to England.

The West Indies cricket team visited Ceylon in February 1949 and played two first-class matches versus Ceylon. The West Indies won the first match at Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo by an innings and 22 runs after scoring 462–2 declared with centuries by Allan Rae, Everton Weekes and Clyde Walcott. Prior Jones took ten wickets in the match. The second match at the same venue was drawn, Rae making another century for West Indies.

In August 1949 the first Pakistan national cricket team visited Ceylon and played two first-class matches against Ceylon. Both of them were played at Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo. In the first match, under the captaincy of Mohammad Saeed, Pakistan won by an innings and 192 runs with Saeed being top-scorer with 93. Then the great Pakistan bowler Fazal Mahmood took 4–15 when Ceylon was bowled out for a meager 95 in their second innings. Pakistan won by 10 wickets the second match despite some good batting by Ceylon in their first innings.

From 1953–4 until 1975–6, the Ceylon Cricket Association played a first-class match against Madras (later renamed Tamil Nadu) for the Gopalan Trophy. This fixture was played in Colombo roughly every two years, with one further fixture in 1982–3, alternating with the fixture being held in Madras.

In November 1956, India visited Ceylon and played two first-class international matches against Ceylon at the Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo. Both matches were drawn. The Indian team was captained by Polly Umrigar and included Nari Contractor, Subhash Gupte, Pankaj Roy, A. G. Kripal Singh and Vijay Manjrekar.

1960s[edit]

Sri Lanka had associate member status of the ICC from 1965 to 1981 when they would be awarded full membership.

In 1964-65 Ceylon defeated a Pakistan A team in Ceylon and a full Indian team in India. West Indies visited Ceylon in January 1967 and played a single first-class match at the Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo versus Ceylon. The match was drawn. West Indies was captained by Gary Sobers who scored 115 in his team's only innings. Other centuries were scored by Basil Butcher and Clive Lloyd.

A Ceylon team toured England in 1968 in an effort to press the case for Test status for the country.[21] They played a nineteen-match program between early June and early August, including a game against the Marylebone Cricket Club at Lord's, nine first-class matches against county teams and five other first-class matches. 

Season Opponent Venue Played Won Lost Drawn

First-class matches played by Ceylon, 1960s

1959–60

1968–69 10 Minor teams 3 Home, 12 Away 15 2

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad 3 1 2

1966–67 Pakistan Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore

Dacca Stadium, Dacca

National Stadium, Karachi 3 3

1966–67 West Indies Colombo Oval, Colombo 1 1

1969–70 Australians Colombo Oval, Colombo 1 1

Totals 23 3 9 11

However, the Board of Control for Cricket in Ceylon had insufficient money to pay for the trip, and private donations had to be sought. Also, the government was reluctant to release the necessary foreign exchange at a time when it was struggling to afford vital imports.[21]

"The final straw was that moment in April 1968 when Chandra Schaffter, one of the four selectors, resigned when he found that the other selectors were going to select each other in the team, one of them as captain.". The team was chosen by two selectors, Herbert Fernando and Dhansiri Weerasinghe, who were also tour manager and captain respectively. The team once again featured hospital and student cricketers such as Ranjit Fernando, Abu Fuard, T. B. Kehelgamuwa, Buddy Reid and Anura Tennekoon, and received no government sponsorship, allowing the selectors to leave out many of the existing players to make way for themselves and preferred friends and relatives. The selected team was Herbert Fernando (captain), Michael Tissera (vice-captain), Ranjit Fernando, Abu Fuard, Gamini Goonesena, Stanley Jayasinghe,

In 1969–70 another Australian team visited Ceylon This team played a first-class match against the national Ceylon team and then proceeded to India for a five-Test series against the Indians.

Season Opponent Venue Played Won Lost Drawn

First-class matches played by Ceylon, 1970s

1969–70 Marylebone

Pakistan undertook a tour to Sri Lanka during November 1972 for a single first-class match against the Ceylon national team, played at the Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo. The match was an easy draw, with continuous rain and squally weather almost throughout the game. Pakistan, under Intikhab Alam, compiled 262-8 declared and 48-3 declared, and Sri Lanka made 133 and was 120-3 at the close.

India visited Sri Lanka in January and February 1974. They played two first-class and two limited overs matches against Sri Lanka and two further first-class matches against the Sri Lanka Board president's XI. India beat Sri Lanka at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground by 6 wickets but the other three first-class games were affected by the weather and were drawn.

West Indies also toured Sri Lanka in February 1975 as part of the longer tour meeting India and Pakistan. The Clive Lloyd-captained West Indian team played Sri Lanka and had two first-class draws and a limited overs record of 8 wickets.

Sri Lanka first competed in top-level international cricket in 1975, when they played against the West Indies during the 1975 Cricket World Cup. The West Indies won the match by 9 wickets at Old Trafford, Manchester, England.

Politics'''Pakistan toured Sri Lanka in January 1976 to play three first-class and two limited overs This is a list of tour matches of India national cricket team during 1976'''Sri Lanka won the opening firstclass match at Colombo Cricket Club Ground by  '''{4 wickets and then Pakistan won the second match at the same venue by the same margin In between Pakistan played the Sri Lanka Board presidents XI at Asgiriya Stadium, Kandy and they won this by 7 wickets ***.

Events:

 English team D. H. Robins' XI toured Sri Lanka in 1977–78

Pakistan, led by Majid Khan, toured Sri Lanka in April 1979 to play a limited overs game against the Sri Lanka national team. The game at the Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium was won by Pakistan by 55 runs after scoring 164–8 in their 40 overs in the game. In the reply, Sri Lanka could only manage 109–8.

In February 1979, West Indies visited Sri Lanka. The main first-class match with Sri Lanka at Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo was drawn. West Indies before that came to draw against warm-up game against Sri Lanka Board president's XI at Colombo Cricket Club Ground. West Indies also played three limited overs matches. 

In 1979 they won the ICC Trophy, qualifying for the 1979 Cricket World Cup, where their first One Day International win against a Test cricket playing nation came in the against India.

1980s[edit]

The 1981 Australians to England played a match in Colombo against Sri Lanka only months before Sri Lanka achieved Test status.

On the 21st of July, 1981, Sri Lanka became a full member and were later awarded Test cricket status, the eighth Test playing nation. Their first Test match was played in 1982 against England at the Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium in Colombo: then known as the Colombo Oval, where the home team emerged winners by seven wickets. Bandula Warnapura was the captain for Sri Lanka.

The Zimbabwe national cricket team toured Sri Lanka in December 1983. At this point, Sri Lanka had recently gained Test status, while Zimbabwe had not yet done so. Zimbabwe played two first-class matches against Sri Lanka Board president's XI, one at Tyronne Fernando Stadium and another at Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium, both of which were drawn. Zimbabwe played three limited overs matches against the Sri Lankan XI.

The English cricket team arrived in India for the seat of its tour to India, early in 1984–85, a few days following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, to fill in a gap left in the schedule. Thus, this gave the English tourists a short spell playing in Sri Lanka. This, of course, was not in their original schedule.

Two limited overs internationals were played in 1984–85, featuring New Zealand against Sri Lanka. The first match was won by Sri Lanka by 4 wickets, and the second was taken by New Zealand by 7 wickets.

Their first Test win came on 6 September 1985 under the captaincy of Duleep Mendis when they defeated India in the second match of the series by 149 runs at the Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo. [25][3]

Their first victory came on 6 September 1985 when they defeated India in the second test of the series for 149 runs which was held in the Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo. In the first match, played against Pakistan, who scored 187, the highest wicket-taker was Arjuna Ranatunga, who captured 3 wickets for 38 runs. Sri Lanka won by 5 wickets on the back of an unbeaten half-century scored by Roy Dias. The second match was against India. Batting first, Sri Lanka could score only 96 runs before being bowled out. India reached the target without losing a wicket. The second Asia Cup took place in Sri Lanka. The captain of the team was Duleep Mendis. Sri Lanka went on to lose the first match to Pakistan by 81 runs. Pakistan posted 197 runs, whereas Sri Lanka was bowled out for 116 runs in reply. [28] The second game was against Bangladesh. In this match, Bangladesh scored 131 runs but Sri Lanka won it by 7 wickets and in result, they were qualified for the final. [29]. In the final, Pakistan made 191 runs and Sri Lanka raced to victory with 5 wickets. With Ranatunga contributing 57 runs to the team, he was of winning importance. With this win, Sri Lanka claimed its first Asia Cup in the history.

The 1988 Asia Cup took place in Bangladesh among the four cricketing nations of the subcontinent. under the leadership of Arjuna Ranatunga, Sri Lanka began the tournament with a win opposite to Pakistan. Pakistan managed to produce 194 runs, and the milestone was achieved by Sri Lanka in the 39th over. In the second match where they played India, after winning the toss and electing to bat first, Sri Lanka set the scorecard with 271 runs. Both Aravinda de Silva and Athula Samarasekara scored fifties, whereas only five runs were needed to win the match when they stopped India at 254 runs. Kapila Wijegunawardene took 4 wickets for 49 runs.[31] In the last group stage match, Sri Lanka played with the host Bangladesh. In experienced Bangladeshi team scored 118 runs and pacer Ravi Ratnayeke took 4 wickets for 23 runs. Sri Lanka scored 120 runs in the 31st overs where the opener Brendon Kuruppu scored unbeaten 58.[32] Sri Lanka played the final against Pakistan. However, they scored 176 runs in the match and Pakistan won the match by 6 wickets and won their first title of Asia Cup.[33]

1990s[edit]

Sanath Jayasuriya, known as the Master Blaster, due to high class match winning devastating performances in ODIs came to prominence in the 1990s. He was also Sri Lankan captain between 1999 and 2002

Sri Lanka had to wait for more than 7 years for their next series victory and that came against New Zealand in December 1992. They won the two Test match series 1–0.[34] Then they record 1 wicket win against England in a Test series containing a solitary Test match.[35]

2 years later, on 15 March 1995 Sri Lanka won its first overseas Test match under the leadership of Arjuna Ranatunga against New Zealand when they beat them by 241 runs at Napier. This win also resulted in their first overseas Test series victory, 1-0. Their next series too was an overseas series against Pakistan, and that one too resulted in Sri Lankan victory.

1990–91 Asia Cup

Main article: 1990–91 Asia Cup

The tournament took place in India with only India, [Sri Lanka], and Bangladesh. Pakistan withdrew from playing in the tournament because of political disagreements with India. In the opening game, Sri Lanka defeated India by 36 runs. Sri Lanka scored 214 for courtesy of 105-ball fifty from captain Arjuna Ranatunga. India were bowled out for 178 runs, and Rumesh Ratnayake scalped three wickets for 39 runs.[39] Against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka made 249 runs with Aravinda notching 89 runs. Bangladesh scored only 178 runs and Sri Lanka was won the match by 71 runs.[40] Sri Lanka comfortably made it to the finals, along with India. Background

Sri Lanka batted first and scored 204 runs, but India chased it in 199 balls, winning the match by 7 wicket.[41] It was India's third title of Asia Cup, but for this third consecutive appearance in Asia Cup, Sri Lanka was runners up in this edition. 

1995 Asia Cup

Main article: 1995 Asia Cup

In 1995 Pepsi Asia Cup was held in UAE and the participation in this tournament was between four cricketing nations of subcontinent. Team was headed by Arjuna Ranatunga. Against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka scored 233 runs with fifties from Sanath Jayasuriya and Aravinda de Silva. Surprisingly, Jayasuriya was pushed to open instead of Asanka Gurusinha, who had been tried earlier throughout the series. Muralitharan took 4 wickets for the cost of 23 runs to round up the Bangladesh team cheaply. Bangladesh could only score 115 runs, so Sri Lanka won the match by 107 runs. In the next match, they played against India, and India won the match by 8 wickets with Tendulkar's century. In the match against Pakistan, Sri Lanka won by 5 wickets so that it entered the fourth consecutive final of the Asia Cup.  Sri Lanka made 230 runs where Gurusinha scored 87 runs. India in the reply scored 233 runs with unbeaten fifties from Sidhu and Azharuddin. India won the fourth Asia Cup title.[45]

1996 Cricket World Cup

Main article: 1996 Cricket World Cup

1996 Cricket World Cup, hosted by India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Skipper of the Sri Lankan squad Arjuna Ranatunga, where they played their preliminary round in Group A with Australia, West Indies, India, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Australia lost the match to Sri Lanka when the matches were held in Sri Lankan soil, and they did not want to play the match. So the matches were recorded as a victory by Sri Lanka by walkover.[46][47] Against Zimbabwe, thanks to Aravinda's 91 runs, Sri Lanka won fairly easily by 6 wickets. Two records were broken during this match: highest ever by a Sri Lankan in the World Cup. Highest ever for any player at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground at that point in time.[48] In the next match, Sri Lanka faced India, and Sanath Jayasuriya overshadowed the Indian bowlers.[49] In this change, Jayasuriya scored 47 runs from Indian bowler Manoj Prabhakar in four overs.[50] The last group match was against Kenya, and the match saw Sri Lanka scored 398/5, the highest team total at that time. Aravinda again played a scintillating knock of 145 in this match.[51] He is also the highest run-scorer for any Sri Lankan in the World Cup history, with 145 runs.[52]

In the first quarterfinals, Sri Lanka played with England, where Sanath devastated the English players with his fast 82 runs just off 44 balls. Sri Lanka won the match by 5 wickets and progressed through to their first semi-finals in the World Cup. The next match was with India in the semi-final, also in Kolkata, Eden Gardens with the eyes of a lot of Indian fans. Sri Lanka batted first, but their first 3 wickets fell very early. But then Aravinda and Roshan Mahanama paced the innings with their half-centuries.[55] Skipper Arjuna and Hashan Tillakaratne also played good hands. Javagal Srinath from India grabbed 3 wickets for 56 runs.

In the end, Sri Lanka managed 251/8 in 50 overs, hence providing Indians with a good opportunity to win the match. But such was the quality of the Sri Lankan bowling on the day that Navjot Singh Sidhu and skipper Mohammad Azharuddin were out early. But while Sachin Tendulkar and Sanjay Manjrekar were slowly building the inning, both wickets handed Sri Lanka huge chances of winning. Eight down for 120, the huge crowd of Indian fans started to get aggressive, raining bottles and other materials on the ground, which made the continuation of the match impossible further. The umpires went onto a discussion with both teams and it was declared that the match was awarded to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka went on to their first finals in World Cup history.[57]

The finals was against Australia led by Mark Taylor at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore. Before the game, former 1992 Cricket World Cup winning captain Imran Khan had a talk with Sri Lankan captain Ranatunga and said to him that if they win the toss, to choose bat first. This was because the ground was more favorable to bat first and bowl under the lights. At the toss, though it was Ranatunga won the match and chose to field first. After a blazing start by captain Mark Taylor and young superstar and future captain Ricky Ponting, Australia now fell from being 1–137 to 5–170 after which Sri Lanka's four-prong spin attack took its toll. After Australia crashed to a 7–241 in its quota of 50 overs, Sri Lanka overcame a nervous start where they lost both the openers before the score was 30 to romp home in 45 overs. But on that special day, Sri Lankan Aravinda remained unbeaten on 107, with good support from Gurusinha contributing 65, and the unbeaten 47 scored by captain Ranatunga. De Silva was declared the man of the match, who earlier showed all-round performance by picking three wickets for 42 runs in his 10 overs against the Australian innings, and the man of the series won by Sanath Jayasuriya.

The high point in Sri Lankan cricket undoubtedly came during the said 1996 World Cup, where they beat top-ranked Australian in the final under the captaincy of Arjuna Ranatunga, and winning the extraordinary performance of Aravinda de Silva in the finals. Sri Lanka lost their openers, Sanath Jayasuriya, and Romesh Kaluwitharana, early but then Asanka Gurusinha and Aravinda de Silva settled in. Gurusinha was finally out for a valuable 57 and then de Silva had the match winning partnership with skipper Ranatunga. Sri Lanka needed 51 off the last ten overs. A knock which showed that a lesson could be applied, De Silva's hundred became the third century in a World Cup final, after Clive Lloyd's in 1975 and Viv Richards' in 1979. Here first to unlock a World Cup final and first to unlock the World Cup in the home continent that counted as groundbreaking.

The manner of play by Sri Lanka throughout the series had been a new chapter in One Day International Cricket, due in large part to the extremely aggressive batting by their openers, Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana, during the first fifteen overs of the innings in order to fully capitalize on the fielding restrictions. This has now almost become a defining feature of One Day Internationals.

The sixth edition of Asia Cup was held in Sri Lanka for the second time. Four subcontinent teams participated in the tournament. Ranatunga led the world cup victorious team into the Asia Cup. In the first match against Pakistan, Marvan Atapattu's fifty added 239 runs onto the scoreboard for Sri Lanka. In reply, Pakistan scored 224 runs, where Jayasuriya took 4 wickets. Sri Lanka won the match by 15 runs. In the next match, India made 227 runs for three wickets in its turn. When chasing, skipper Ranatunga scored a magnificent hundred with unbeaten 131 to steer Sri Lanka to a 6-wicket victory. In the final group match Sri Lanka won the game by enforcing a defeat of 103 runs on Bangladesh. Jayasuriya scored a century in the match, wherein he along with Atapattu had a 171-run partnership for the first wicket. Bangladeshi openers put on a 76-run partnership, but after the falling of their wickets, Bangladesh lost the plot and got only 193 runs. India and Sri Lanka qualified for the final where Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets to win its second Asia Cup and ending India's three consecutive championship run. Atapattu top scored with unbeaten 84 runs along with fifties by Jayasuriya and Ranatunga.[65]

1999 Cricket World Cup

Main article: 1999 Cricket World Cup

1999 Cricket World Cup hosted by England and Netherlands, where Sri Lanka came as defending champions. Ranatunga again led the team with 1996 World Cup winning members - Jayasuriya, Muralitharan, Mahanama, Hashan, Kalu, Vaas, Aravinda, Pramodya and Upul Chandana. They grouped in Group A with South Africa, India, Zimbabwe, England and Kenya.

Sri Lanka played their first group match with England, where they could not play up to their caliber and scored only 204 before being bowled out in 48.2 overs. The high bouncing pitches gave the sub-continent players a real headache. England won the match comfortably by 8 wickets. In the second group match, against South Africa, they played badly,. Sri Lanka could only manage 110 runs in comparison with a goal of 199 runs — the highest scorers being Mahanama, putting up 36 runs. Against Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka finally won the match by 4 wickets. Zimbabwe only could make 197/9, while Sri Lanka made 198/6. In the very next match, they played against India, and the Indian team put 373/6 on board, with Sourav Ganguly scoring a magnificent 183 runs in 158 balls. Sri Lanka scored only 216 out of 10 before the allotment of overs, and India scored an easy victory with 157 runs in hand. Their loss from India eliminated them from the World Cup. This world cup campaign was really disappointed for them after being the champs in the last World Cup. Their last match was against Kenyans, where Sri Lanka won the match by 45 runs.[71]

2000s[edit]

Sinhalese Sports Club Ground hosting a Test match in 2001

Marvan Atapattu, who had captained Sri Lanka between 2002 and 2005, had scored three Test centuries, inclusive of 201 not out against England, at the Sinhalese Sport Club Ground in March 2001

Sri Lanka's 100th ODI game happened against Pakistan when they played against them on 14 June 2000. They played this game at the SSC, Colombo ground captained by Sanath Jayasuriya. Pakistan won the watch by 5 wickets.[72]

They have also won the 2001-02 Asian Test Championship, defeating Pakistan in the final by an innings and 175 runs.[73]

2000 Asia Cup

Main article: 2000 Asia Cup

The seventh Asia Cup tournament was held in Bangladesh. All four subcontinent cricketing nations had participated, with the Sri Lankan team being headed by Sanath Jayasuriya. In the opening encounter against Bangladesh, skipper Jayasuriya won the toss and decided to bowl first, and Chaminda Vaas took two quick wickets. For Bangladesh, Javed Omar scored an outstanding 85 not out, even though they ended up only 175 in their allotted 50 overs. Sri Lanka achieved the target in 31st overs with 96 runs coming off the blade of Aravinda.[74] In the second match, skipper Surav scored a brilliant 105 and posted 278 on the board. However, Sachin Tendulkar made 93 in the chase, but was not enough to get that win. Sri Lanka would win the match by 71 runs.[75]

 Against Pakistan, a weak total of only 192 runs was scored by the Lankans and they lost the match by 7 wickets.[76]    Pakistan ultimately would go on to win the tournament beating Sri Lanka by 39 runs in the final by 35 runs.[77]

 Marvan Atapattu scored his fourth hundred in his 96th match and in the process became the third highest ODI century maker for Sri Lanka.[78]

 2003 Cricket World Cup

Main article: 2003 Cricket World Cup

When the 2003 Cricket World Cup got shifted to the African continent, South Africa was pooled together, who shared the hosting with Zimbabwe and Kenya. Sanath Jayasuriya led the side. The team was grouped in Pool B along with South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies, Bangladesh, Canada, and Kenya. The first match was against New Zealand, wherein Blackcaps captain Stephen Fleming won the toss and opted to bat first. In reply, Jayasuriya and Atapattu provided a good start as they batted steadily until the fifth over, when they lost their first wicket, with the skipper Jayasuriya scoring 120 runs against Blackcaps bowling attack.[79] They ended with a total of 272/7 at the end of their innings. The second innings didn't start well for New Zealand, as they lost their opening batsman Nathan Astle in the very first over and captain Flemming in the second. The first taste of real exciting work for New Zealand supporters came when Styris and Cairns started hitting a few boundaries. Scott Styris overpassed Jayasuriya's batting by his 141 but New Zealand all out for 217 in the total. Sri Lanka won by 47 runs and Jayasuriya was named man of the match.

Next match came against Bangladesh, where Chaminda Vaas became the only bowler to claim a hat tricks in the first three balls of any form of international cricket when he took the first three wickets off the opening three balls of the match.[81] With this feat, Vaas became the third of only four players to have achieved two hat tricks. Bangladesh failed to make a substantial score of 124/10. Sri Lankan opening batsman reached the target without a wicket falling.[82] At the very next match against Canada,[83] Sri Lanka again involved for a World record, where Canada total of 36 was the lowest total in World Cup history and fourth lowest in all ODIs. Comfortable win by Sri Lanka for this match as well, winning by 9 wickets. They lost the match to underdog Kenyans for the first time. The match was at Kenyan soil, Kenya batted first and scored 201 runs courtesy of 60 runs by Kennedy Otieno. Murali took 4 wickets and Vaas with 3 wickets. Sri Lanka came to bat, only Aravinda scored 41 runs.[85] All the others scored less than 30. Sri Lanka all out for just 157 runs in 45 overs. This was the first time that, Sri Lanka lost a match to an affiliate nation.[86] Opening the innings against West Indies, Sri Lanka get back into the game, where they won by 6 runs despite heroics from Ramnaresh Sarwan.[87] The last group match was against South Africa, where Sri Lanka batted first and scored 268/9. South Africa was at 229/6 when rain came.[88] Duckworth–Lewis method assessed the match to be tied.[89] Eventually, Sri Lanka reached the top of the Pool B and got selected for the quarter finals.[90]

In the Quarterfinals, they had losses again of heavy nature against Australia[91] and also India,[92] won over only Zimbabwe.[93] Only fourth resulted in standing, where Kenya recorded first semifinal birth in the history. The Semi-Final match of Sri Lanka was against Australia. After a disciplined, tight bowling by Sri Lanka, Australia could only manage a hard-fought 212 for 7 wickets from the full 50 overs, mainly thanks to a high-quality innings of 91 not out off 118 balls with 7 fours and 1 six by Andrew Symonds, much to the delight of his captain Ricky Ponting. Vaas, in his continuation of the excellent tournament, took three wickets. The Australian pace attack then tore into the Sri Lankan top order, with Brett Lee taking three early wickets—3/35 in 8 overs—and Glenn McGrath taking one—1/20 in 7 overs. By the time rain arrived in the 39th over, continued tight bowling had squeezed Sri Lanka to 123 (7 wickets, 38.1 overs), well behind the target given by the Duckworth–Lewis method. This is the match in which Adam Gilchrist famously "walked" despite being given not out.[95][96]

2004 Asia Cup

Main article: 2004 Asia Cup

After semi final loss in World Cup, Aravinda de Silva retired from international cricket by making a great hole in the line up. He ended the career as Sri Lanka's greatest batsman and the longest-serving player in international cricket that stretches back nearly two decades. [97] Eighth edition of Asia Cup was held in Sri Lanka with the participation of four test playing Asian nations with two leading Asian associate nations, the UAE and Hong Kong. [98] Atapattu led the Sri Lanka team which contained new young faces in international arena.

In the first match, Sri Lanka thrashed UAE by 116 runs. UAE's batsmen were easily dismissed for 123 runs in 47.5 overs after Avishka Gunawardene top-scored Sri Lanka's run total, with a score of 73, with a score of 239. In the second match, the Lankans batted first, blasting to 282 runs, including a fifty by the one-drop Mahela Jayawardene. After selecting to field against India, the Indian batsmen were eventually rattled at a poor 71 for 5. The only Indian performance in the match was 82 runs by Rahul Dravid. Sri Lanka finally won by 12 runs and getting into Super Four stages as favorites to lift the tournament. 

In the Super Four stage, Sri Lanka continued their winning streak by winning both their matches against Pakistan and Bangladesh, thereby proceeding to the consecutive Asia Cup final. Against Bangladesh, Jayasuriya scored his blistering best with unbeaten 107 runs and also Gunawardene scored unbeaten 64. Sri Lanka won the match by 10 wickets with 16 overs to spare. Jayasuriya didn't stop hitting against India, where he scored 130 runs. The run chase took a very shaky balance when, with 18 balls remaining and 18 runs supposedly needed, Sri Lanka was losing grip with newfound aggressiveness, with quick wickets of Jayasuriya, Dilshan, and Chandana. 11 was needed in the last over and Zaheer Khan kept his nerve to bowl a splendid final over as India won by 4 runs.[102] They had another encounter in Asia Cup final, the Sri Lankans batted first and notched up 228 runs. Atapattu scored 65 as the top scorer. India only scored 203 runs in their 50 overs and Sri Lanka were crowned as the Asia Cup winners for a record third time.[103]

2007 Cricket World Cup

Main article: 2007 Cricket World Cup

Mahela Jayawardene captained the Sri Lankans between 2005 and 2012

The 9th Cricket World Cup was held in Caribbean islands, captained by Mahela Jayawardena of the Sri Lankans. The 12 teams were divided into four groups with Sri Lanka being placed in Group B. India, Bangladesh, and Bermuda all participated with Sri Lanka in their group matches. Bermuda's World Cup debut turned out to be the second heaviest defeat in the World Cup, 40 runs worse than Scotland's defeat a day earlier. After batting first, winning the toss, Sri Lanka amassed 321/6 in 50 overs as skipper Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Chamara Silva all collected half-centuries,[104] while Kevin Hurdle took two wickets for Bermuda, albeit his second over lasted 14 balls due to no-balls and wides. Bermuda declined further to 20 for four after Lasith Malinga had taken three wickets in three overs, finishing with bowling figures of three for 10. Hoiwever, with the seven first men down, it was left to Lionel Cann to pair up with Delyone Borden and together they contributed exactly 25 runs, the largest partnership of the innings. Both were removed by Farveez Maharoof, then Murali had Dwayne Leverock lbw, to end the innings for 78—Bermuda's lowest total ever in One-day Internationals. Sri Lanka won the match by 243 runs.[105]

Next match for Sri Lanka was against Bangladesh who registered their second win by defeating India and this was one of their best performances in the tournament before they came to play against Sri Lanka. But their hopes were ended by a 198-run defeat against Sri Lanka - their third heaviest loss of all time, but the biggest since they last lost by 200 runs to India in 2003. Only the rain interruptions and the revised D/L target made the margin of victory not even bigger; Jayasuriya had already done the damage with seven sixes in this, his 24th One-day International century, turning it into 318 for four before Bangladesh were bowled out for 112, all the Sri Lankan bowlers apart from Jayasuriya sharing the wickets among them, at a cost of fewer than five an over all told, with the spinners Mohammad Rafique and Abdur Razzak the only ones to do likewise for Bangladesh, while for Sri Lanka only Russel Arnold cost more than five an over. Four Sri Lankan batsmen scored more runs in that innings individually than the top-scoring Bangladeshi batsman in the last game, Mohammad Ashraful, who made 45 not out, batting at number seven

Last group match was against the neighbors, India, who was on the brink of elimination from the tournament. So the match was highly valuable to Indians than Lankans. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka progressed to the Super Eights undefeated after newcomers Upul Tharanga and Chamara Silva both scored half-centuries while Murali took three wickets including wicket-keeper MS Dhoni for a duck.

Zaheer started with a wide but also had Jayasuriya brilliantly caught behind in his opening spell, striking at the end of the seventh over, and also had Tharanga in trouble with in-cutters. Tharanga, on the other hand, batted through nearly two thirds of the match for his 64 and none of the bowlers, as poor cricket from the Indians, kept the run rate below four as Sri Lanka made it to 254 for six. Vaas, the left-arm seamer, struck twice within eleven overs, taking a return catch off Robin Uthappa and having Ganguly caught for a 23-ball seven. Tendulkar followed in the next over, bowled by Dilhara Fernando for his second duck of the tournament, but Virender Sehwag and skipper Rahul Dravid made it through the next ten overs, before the "turning point" arrived when Murali had Sehwag caught at first slip in his third over; the next six overs yielded only 14 runs and two more wickets, after Dhoni went lbw to Murali, and India needed 141 runs off 22 overs. Despite double-digit scores from Ajit Agarkar, Harbhajan Singh and Munaf Patel, they were bowled out for 185. India eliminated and Sri Lanka through to Super 8s.

Super 8s has gone pretty well with the Sri Lankans, whose performances, having lost only against South Africa and Australia. In the first Super match between Sri Lanka and South Africa, Malinga took four wicket with a record international delivery of four balls. Opting to bat first after winning the toss, Sri Lanka were in shambles losing their five wickets with only 98 runs on the board. Charl Langeveldt had taken two in his first spell of 2 overs. Tillakaratne Dilshan and Russel Arnold built a sixth-wicket stand worth 97 in nearly 20 overs, but as soon as Dilshan was caught off the bowling of Makhaya Ntini, Langeveldt cleaned up with 3 in 5 balls, off which Sri Lanka were bowled out in the final over for 209. In reply, Vaas had AB de Villiers bowled in the first over, but Jacques Kallis added 95 with Graeme Smith and 65 with Herschelle Gibbs before running him out. In the latter's absence, South Africa crumbled again with their middle order, which brought the Sri Lankans back into the game before a steady recovery to reach a victory target of 176. His four-in-four had Shaun Pollock, Andrew Hall, Kallis and Ntini followed, though South Africa managed a run off Vaas in the intermediate over. South Africa now needed three runs to win with one wicket in hand and eleven deliveries went by before Robin Peterson got an outside edge to a Malinga ball which went out of reach of slip and went fine for four. The narrow game saw South Africa winning the game by just 1 wicket.[111] With this feat, Lasith Malinga emerged as the only bowler in the game's history to get four consecutive wickets in four balls in any form of the game.[112]

Next match was against the hosts-West Indies. Play was delayed at the start by bad light at the Sinhalese Sports Club, but a full 50-over match was possible - so much so that the West Indies completed their third win in four days. Jayasuriya and Jayawardene put on 183 for the third wicket, and then Dilshan made 39 off 22 balls and the final 11 overs brought a further 84. In the meantime, Jayasuriya scored his 35th ODI century, the second most prolific ODI century maker in history after Tendulkar. In reply, West Indies needed 170 off 94 when Ramnaresh Sarwan was stumped off Jayasuriya; they only got 56 of those, and were bowled out for 190, with four batsmen out in single figures. Sri Lanka won the match by huge 113 runs.

Against England Sri Lanka created another nail biter. They batted first and reaching 235 before being bowled off the final ball with a run out. Openers, England lost their 0 and 10 but Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen staged a rearguard stand adding 90 for the third wicket. Skipper Paul Collingwood added 25 before being dismissed and Pietersen eventually was out, caught and bowled by Murali. England then lost two more wickets for seven runs for Dilhara Fernando, requiring 103 off 16.3 overs with four wickets in hand. However, Ravi Bopara scored a half-century in his fourth One-Day International innings, as he and Paul Nixon took England within three runs of victory. However, Fernando returned for the last over, and bowled Bopara off the last ball giving Sri Lanka victory. During the match, Jayasuriya became the most capped ODI player, surpassing Tendulkar. Sri Lanka won two of last three matches -won against New Zealand and Ireland, lost to Australia, secured their place to semi-finals.

In the semi-final, Sri Lanka was to meet New Zealand again, in which a century by skipper Jayawardena helped Sri Lanka to score 289/7.[122] New Zealand could score only 208 runs, and Sri Lanka sent them out of World Cup.[123] Sri Lanka qualified for their second final in World Cups, in which they were facing the same opponent as in 1996-Australians.[124][125] Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting won the toss and decided to bat. But the downpour interrupted the start of play, and eventually, it got restricted to 38 overs a piece. Gilchrist churned out a brilliant inning of 149, the best by a batsman in World Cup finals, to help Australia register a big score before getting down for the recess. The inning, however, got into the controversy afterwards due to Gilchrist usage of a squash ball inside the left glove.

The march was lit while Sangakkara added 116 runs for the second wicket with Jayasuriya, but once both left, Sri Lanka's hopes appeared to be drifting away. Subsequent rain meant that Sri Lanka's innings was shortened to 36 overs, with a revised D/L target of 269 runs for victory. However, when the 33rd over was completed, Sri Lanka was still 37 runs short of the final D/L par score and the umpires called an early end to the contest. While Australia's players started to celebrate their win – as the minimum 20 overs were reached – the umpires mistakenly argued that as the game was held up for light and not rain, the last three overs would have to be bowled the next day instead.[128] With Sri Lanka requiring 61 runs from 18 balls, Jayawardene accepted there was no point coming back the next day, and called his side in to resume batting, with Ponting agreeing to only use spinners. The umpires later apologised for their mistake: the match should have ended then with Australia winning by 37 runs. The last three overs were played in almost complete darkness, during which Sri Lanka added just nine runs, giving Australia a 53-run victory by the D-L method, as Sri Lanka had batted two overs fewer than they had.[129]

2007 ICC World Twenty20

Main article: 2007 ICC World Twenty20

The first edition of World Twenty20 World Championship, which was hosted by South Africa. Sri Lanka played under the captainship of Mahela Jayawardena in Group C along with New Zealand and Kenya. The first match was against the Kenyans, which was a world record-breaking match. Kenya won the toss and gave Lankans the chance to bat first. The innings were opened by Tharanga and Jayasuriya, where Thomas Odoyo bowled Tharanga. Then Sangakkara joined Jayasuriya. Sangakkara was bowled by Jimmy Kamande when the score was at 94 in 9 overs. The show time began then, where Jayasuria and Jayawardena scored unfaithfully for all the bowlers. Jayasuriya was caught when he was on a magnificent 88, with 11 fours and 4 sixes. Meanwhile, Jayawardena played a brilliant inning. He was lbw for 65 from just 27 balls. In Sri Lanka's innings, it was 215/6 in 18 overs when Jehan Mubarak arrived at the crease. He hit unbelievable sixes down the ground to Nehemiah Odhiambo and Peter Ongondo. He smashed 46 off 13 balls, which included 3 fours and 5 huge sixes. The strike rate of this innings was 353.84. Sri Lanka finished with 260/6, which recorded highest T20 total in any top-level Twenty20 match. Kenyans came to bat with the huge task in front of them. Kenya lost opener Maurice Ouma to Chaminda Vaas for a duck. Never recovered after that, Kenya were 88 for 7 in the 20th over., as Sri Lanka kept dismissing their batsmen cheaply. That win, by 172 runs, is the largest victory in runs in a Twenty20 international. Sri Lanka's innings contained 30 fours — the most until now in a Twenty20 international — and 186 runs came in fours and sixes — the highest by far in a Twenty20 international.

Next group match was with Blackcaps, where they scored 164/7. Sri Lanka won the match in 18.5 overs with 3 wickets gone. Jayasuriya became the Man-of-the-Match in both these matches.[132] Within Super 8s, Sri Lanka went qualified to Group F. In first Super 8 match with Pakistan, Sri Lanka lost by 33 runs.[133] In the next match against Bangladesh, they bounccd back well with 64 run victory.[134] The crucial match to qualify for the semi-finals was with Australians and Sri Lanka only scored 101 against Aussie pacers. Australia won the match by 10 wickets, and as a result, Sri Lanka was subsequently eliminated from the tournament.[135]

2008 Asia Cup

Main article: 2008 Asia Cup

Quoted as "Noisy scammers: ugly win", after the World Cup final loss, Sri Lanka went Pakistan for the ninth edition of Asia Cup. Mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis was the key player of the Asia Cup. Mostly all Asian cricket countries, including India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and associate nations of Asia UAE and Hong Kong, participated in the tournament. Mahela Jayawardene was leading the Sri Lankan side. In the first match against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka piled an imposing total of 357; Jayasuriya scored 72 and his opening partner Kumar Sangakkara 101. Chamara Kapugedera scored 74 runs coming at the end of innings. The Bangladeshi were never in the chase in their reply. They scored 226 runs, and Sri Lanka emerged victorious by 131 runs. The following game, Sri Lanka restricted UAE to a mere 148 runs to win the game by 142 runs with Ajantha Medis taking a fifer. 137

At the super four stage, Sri Lanka once again defeated Pakistan quite easily and in the process, andersen Bangladesh to qualifiy for back-to-back Asia Cup finals. Sangakkara scored 112 runs backed up with a disciplined bowling performance that handed them a 64-run win over Pakistan. Against Bangladesh, it was another Jayasuriya show. On his 39th birthday, Jayasuriya hammered 130 runs from 88 balls. He added 201 with Sangakkara in only 27.5 overs in which Sangakkara scored 121 runs. With that, Sanath Jayasuriya became the third player to score a century on his birthday, after Vinod Kambli and Tendulkar.

However, Sri Lanka lost the next match to India, the former's final opponent. Sri Lanka lost four more wickets for 61 runs, where veteran Jayasuriya started his blistering batting along with Dilshan. Jayasuriya scored, amounting to 273 total, his 27th ODI century. Not having witnessed Mendis before, India had a nightmare during the chase, which started really well when Virender Sehwag scored a 36-ball 60 before Mendis came into the scene. Mendis took 6 wickets for 13 runs, recording the best bowling figures in an Asia Cup final. Sri Lanka won the fourth Asia Cup title, and Mendis was declared man of the match and player of the series.[144]

2009 Lahore attack

Main article: 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team

On 3 March 2009, the Sri Lankan team's convoy was attacked in Lahore, Pakistan by gunmen. This resulted in five policemen being killed and injuries to seven cricketers and a member of the coaching team. [145] The team was on its way to the Gaddafi Stadium where they were scheduled to start the third day of the Second Test. After the incident, the test match was called off by the Sri Lankan Cricket board. Sri Lanka had agreed to tour Pakistan, replacing India who refused to do so and cited security concerns.

2009 ICC World Twenty20

Main article: 2009 ICC World Twenty20

Kumar Sangakkara was Sri Lankan captain between 2009 and 2011

The second T20 tournament was given England to host. Kumar Sangakkara lead the Sri Lankan team in the tournament. Within Group C, they played with West Indies and Australia. Of the three teams, only two would proceed to the ongoing round. Sri Lanka gain prominence in World Twenty20 arena with this series. To stay alive, Sri Lanka had to win every game. They played against Australia and won by 6 wickets, eliminating them from group stage for the first time in a major tournament. Ajantha Mendis took 3 wickets and in batting, skipper Sangakkara also contributed with an unbeaten 55. In the next match, Sri Lanka batted first against the misfiring West Indies and posted 192/5, featuring a blistering 81 from Jayasuriya. However, the larger place of the final went to Tillakaratne Dilshan, who, promoted as an opener with Jayasuriya, drew attention through his innovative strokeplay: the shot above the Wicket-keeper's head would end up coming to be known as the "Dilscoop". And he seemed to play it in just about every match played in this series and constantly gained good runs. West Indies could muster only 177/5 in 20 overs, booted out of the tournament, with Sri Lanka into the Super 8s.

New Zealand, Pakistan, and Ireland shared the Group F spot with Sri Lanka in Super 8s. Sri Lanka won their game against Pakistan with a 19-run lead. Dilshan scored 46 runs with some innovative Dilscoops.[156] Against Ireland, Sri Lanka won by 9 runs, where Irish players came hard at Lankan bowlers.[157] In the last Super 8 match, Sri Lanka beat New Zealand by 48 runs.[158] Dilshan played another magnificent 48 runs and Mendis took 3/9 in the bowling.[159] The semi-final was against West Indies for the second time in the tournament, where Sri Lanka scored 158/5 in their 20 overs. Another scorching knock, Dilshan made 96* international runs. He was just a boundary away from a first T20I century by a Sri Lankan.[160] Dilshan made 60.76% of runs for Sri Lanka which was then a new record in Twenty20 International cricket. But this was all changed hours later when Chris Gayle stroked 62.38% of runs for his team. West Indies scored just 101 all out in their 20 overs.[161] Angelo Mathews proved his ability also with the ball, where he took first 3 wickets of West Indian top order. Sri Lanka easily moved to their first T20 International final. However, Mahela ended the tournament as highest run scorer with 302 runs.

In the final at Lord's, Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat. The first over, though, was bowled by Mohammad Amir. He failed to score off the first four balls—all short—booyed by the idea of playing the scoop, Dilshan went for it, only to mishit one straight to short fine leg. Soon after Dilshan's departure came that of Mubarak when he top-edged an Abdul Razzaq delivery to be caught by Shahzaib Hasan. He went to score 2 for 2. Jayasuriya seemed to end Sri Lanka's misery on the field, for he had brought his face for a share of dignity into a run out hit, hitting the ball for 17 runs off 10 deliveries. Design quickly took 2 more wickets, including Jayasuriya for 17 after dragging a good length ball back onto the stumps. Jayawardene was out not long after when he edged to Misbah-ul-Haq off Saeed Ajmal, the score at 32/4. Sangakkara and Chamara Silva took the score on further, but Silva was caught by Saeed Ajmal playing a pull shot, to Gul.[162] Afridi, the Pakistani captain, quickly got rid of Isuru Udana shortly thereafter by producing a googly that drifted into the right-hander and knocked back the off-stump. This brought in Mathews, who with Sangakkara took the score from 70/6 to 138/6, with 17 runs being scored off the last over bowled by Mohammad Amir. Sri Lanka finished on 138/6 from 20 overs.[163]

Pakistan started off well with openers Kamran Akmal and Shahzaib Hasan, adding 48 runs for the 1st wicket, before Kamran Akmal was stumped by Sangakkara by the first delivery of Jayasuriya. Pakistan achieved the target at 18.4 overs, with Shahid Afridi, who hit the winning runs, earning Man of the Match and Tillakaratne Dilshan declared Man of the Series for his 317 runs at an average of 63.40.[164]

2010s[edit]

2010 ICC World Twenty20

Main article: 2010 ICC World Twenty20

Although the was played biennially with the first held in 2007, the ICC Champions Trophy ODI tournament slated to be held in the West Indies in 2010 was switched to a Twenty20 format as the 2008 ICC Champions Trophy tournament slated in Pakistan was postponed due to serious security concerns and the international cricketing tournament schedule and calendar had to be adjusted accordingly. This ICC World Twenty20 occurred only 10 months after the last.

In this third T20I occasion, Sri Lanka was led from the front by Kumar Sangakkara again. Sri Lanka was in Group B, with New Zealand and Zimbabwe. The first match was with New Zealand, where Sri Lanka scored only 135/6 with 81 of Jayawardene. New Zealand were shaky in the start but in the later part of their run chase, Jesse Ryder recovered the match to their way with 27 ball 42 runs. Nathan McCullum scored a sixer off the bowling of Chaminda Vaas to give New Zealand victory with 2 wickets in hand, on the last ball of the match. In the next match, Mahela became the first Sri Lankan to score a century in T-20 Internationals, which was against Zimbabwe. He reached one hundred with 64 balls. With this century, he becomes the fourth man in all T20 Internationals and the third in the ICC World Twenty20 Cricket history to score a century. Zimbabwe came to the crease to chase 173 of Lankans but rain interrupted when they were 29/1 in 5 overs. With this Sri Lanka won by 14 runs in D/L method.

In Super 8 stage at Group F, Sri Lanka won against West Indies by 57 runs.[168] This match saw Mahela come very close to scoring his second consecutive century, but the overs ended when he was still not out at 98.[169] In the game played on 4 October against Australia, Sri Lanka lost by a margin of 81 runs.[170] In the next match against India, who hit a scored of 163/5, Sri Lanka chased the scored with only 5 wickets enjoying their victory in the match against India.[171] With 2 wins and 1 loss, they selected for their second consecutive T20I World Cup semi-finals. This time with England. Sri Lanka batted first, but couldn't reach even 150 mark. They scored 128 runs only. Sri Lankan hopes came fade with this performance, where Kevin Pietersen (42 from 26 balls) attacked Sri Lankan bowling line-up. He took the match away from Lankans, and England finally won by 7 wickets to reach the final.[172]

 2010 Asia Cup

Main article: 2010 Asia Cup

The tenth edition of Asia Cup played in June 2010 in Sri Lanka. Only the four test playing nations participated. Sri Lanka was led by Kumar Sangakkara. In the match against Pakistan, Sri Lanka scored 242 runs with the fifties from Angelo Mathews and Mahela Jayawardene. In bowling, Malinga ripped off Salman Butt for naught and Pakistan were 34 for 4 at one stage. With the century from all-rounder Shahid Afridi, Pakistan came back strongly in the game until Malinga's deadly yorkers scattered the stumps of tail enders. Second match was against Bangladesh. Tillakaratne Dilshan virtually all but scuttled Bangladesh's hopes to stay competitive in the Asia Cup. With Dilshan's half century, posted 312 runs, which was recorded as the first ever 300+ total in Rangiri Dambulla soil. Dilshan took 3 wickets in the match and Sri Lanka won the match by 126 runs and helped earn Sri Lanka's bonus point. In the match against India, Farveez Maharoof took his maiden five-wicket haul. Maharoof took a hat-trick, at a time when four wickets fell for no runs, for India. They ended up 209 runs and Sri Lanka won the match by 7 wickets.[175]

Both sides met again in the final and Indian captain MS Dhoni won the toss, deciding to bat first. Gautam Gambhir and Dinesh Karthik gave India a brilliant start, but Gambhir was dispatched at the score of 30, and India were 38/1 in trouble. Then Virat Kohli and Karthik made a 62 runs stand until Virat was caught by Kumar Sangakkara behind the stumps. India could manage to score 268/6 in their fifty overs, and the target of 269 runs was set for Sri Lanka to win the championship. The chase of Sri Lanka began with an early fall of wicket in the very first ball of the innings where Dilshan was caught. The first five wickets fell off in quick succession within 50 runs on the board. After the downfall of five wickets, a promising partnership was developed by Thilina Kandamby and Chamara Kapugedera of 53 runs, that seemed to bring back hopes for Sri Lanka. But the fall of that partnership, Sri Lanka never looked at recovery as they all went out soon after for a mere score of 187 from 44.4 overs. India was thus victors by a huge margin of 81 runs and with this victory is the champions of the Asia Cup for the first time in 15 years.[176]

2011 Cricket World Cup

Main article: 2011 Cricket World Cup

Sri Lanka Cricket Team practicing at Pallekele

India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka jointly hosted the 10th World Cup of Cricket. Kumar Sangakkara was the captain. In group A Sri Lanka played with Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Canada and Kenya, starting off against minnows Canada. Won the toss and elected to bat first, Canada bowled well in the early overs though didn't get a wicket as openers Tharanga and Dilshan reached 50 runs. By the time the first wicket did fall for a run-out for a mix-up of batsmen, the run-scoring scorecard read 63, and Tharanga was found dismissed. Dilshan went to fifty but perished trying to go for another big hit. The Canadians restricted Sri Lanka to 88/2 with over 19 overs bowled; but the two experienced Sri Lankan batsmen, captain Sangakkara and Jayawardene, came together and got a partnership of 50. Both got the run rate to over 6 and both seemed to be coasting to their centuries, until Sangakkara on 92 gave a simple return catch to John Davison with the score at 267/2. Jayawardene hit a boundary when he completed his century before he was dismissed off the very next ball. Fall of more wickets and the game turned hot, with the confrontation of Angelo Mathews and Harvir Baidwan. Sri Lanka finished on 332/7.

Things did not better for the Canadians as Thisara Perera and Nuwan Kulasekara delivered three blows apiece to the Canada innings within the first ten overs. Captain Ashish Bagai tried to lead a recovery, but all the hope for a close finish was dashed when Perera accounted for his wicket to reduce Canada to 53/5. Hard-hitting Rizwan Cheema scored 37, including two massive sixes off spinner Murali, but Murali would have his pound of flesh as Canada folded at 122. And Sri Lanka won by a margin of 210 runs.

The next was a match with a Pakistani team, and that was Lankans' first defeat in home soil in a World Cup. Pakistani captain Shahid Afridi won the toss and decided to bat first right away against one of the pre-poll favorites, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka got the wicket of Ahmed Shehzad in the sixth over, but still, Pakistan manage to proceed along a rapid run rate in the first ten overs. Mohammed Hafeez went along nicely at over a run a ball until a mix-up with Kamran Akmal had him run out. Kamran himself was stumped a couple of overs later, leaving the match evenly poised at 105/3 in the 21st over. Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq then added 104 for the fourth wicket at five an over, without taking too many risks, before Younis fell to Rangana Herath for 72 while trying to accelerate. Misbah, on the other hand, was unbeaten at the close on a well-compiled 83 and helped Pakistan to 277 for 7 at stumps.

Sri Lanka's reply began impressively, with openers Tharanga and Dilshan increasing the scoring rate after a slow initial spell and taking 136-1 in the 25th over. That was when the other major twist followed, with the loss of three wickets, including that of Dilshan, in quick succession to leave Sri Lanka tottering at 96-4. Working the singles and the occasional boundary, Sangakkara rode his luck. Twice, Kamran missed taking the stumps off him following the bowling of Afridi. The required run rate climbed, and Sangakkara kept company with Chamara Silva before falling for one short of a half century when he was caught at long on by Afridi. His form dismissed stumper Jayawadena bowled by pacer Shoaib Akhtar, who bowled a magnificent in swinger. Although Silva had struggled to time the ball from early in the innings, being 16 off 49 balls at one stage, he then suddenly dramatically stepped up the tempo in reaching his half-century - but Afridi did come back to remove dangerous-looking Angelo Mathews. He got to 57 but departed when Kamran finally got a stumping right. Despite a cameo from Kulasekara, Sri Lanka fell marginally short.

Then in the next match against Kenyans, he again took a hat-trick of wickets to become the first bowler in World Cup history to take two hat-tricks. He became the fourth bowler to take two ODI hat-tricks in his career. Sri Lanka chased the target of 146 in a comfortable way by giving just one wicket to take the lead.

The Sri Lanka vs. Australia match was abandoned because of heavy rain.[183] In the next match against Zimbabwe, Tharanga and Dilshan set a new record for the highest first-wicket partnership by scoring 282 runs, beating the previous record by 88 runs. It was also the first occasion in a World Cup that both the openers made a century.[184] Victory against Zimbabwe enabled Sri Lanka to became the first nation to qualify for the quarter-finals of the competition.[185] Zimbabwe replied with a good start of their own but were dismissed for 188 with 11 overs spare. As with past winnings against New Zealand, this New Zealand vs. Sri Lanka match was nothing else but predictable. The Lankans were evidently the best throughout the game. Skipper Sangakkara scored 111 runs and Lankans got 265/9. Blackcaps had a torrid time from the first ball and were bowled out for 153.[186]

Sri Lankan quarter-final counterpart is England. Dilshan and Tharanga then both scored centuries as Sri Lanka easily reached their target of 229 with ten wickets to spare. The eleven balls remaining were the most ever in a ten-wicket victory in an ODI; the chase is now the highest successful run chase in history of cricket with ten wickets in hand. Sri Lanka easily made it to the semifinal stage. In the semi-finals, for a second consecutive time, Sri Lanka defeated New Zealand in the semi-final of the World Cup and made it to the finals. This match will see Murali's final match played on Sri Lankan soil. Sri Lanka conquered the challenge with a 5 wicket win to reach their first back-to-back World Cup final, this time against India.

Zaheer's good bowling and committed fielding from the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, and Virat Kohli inside the 30-yard circle meant that Sri Lanka started off slowly. Zaheer started off with three maidens in a row but got the wicket of Tharanga. He gave away just six runs in his five-over spell. Harbhajan got the wicket of Dilshan, when a delivery carried on to the stumps after deflecting off his gloves. Sangakkara came in after Tharanga's dismissal; he, instead, got set with Dilshan before the latter fell. Jayawardene came in to bat after Sri Lanka were on 60/2 in the 17th over. Sangakkara and Mahela started the consolidation work, but what could not be avoided happened when Sangakkara was eventually out for 48, caught behind by Dhoni. Next batsman Thilan Samaraweera worked on to be not out, after the umpire ruled his pad intercepting a delivery by Yuvraj Singh, the Indians sought a review to the decision and eventually got the out. Zaheer Khan outfoxed Chamara Kapugedera, playing in his maiden World Cup match, with a slower ball. Jayawardene, meanwhile, continued with his quality batting and went on to score an unbeaten 103 off 88 balls in a high-class batting display.[190] Helped by the hard-hitting of Kulasekara and Thisara, Sri Lanka scored 91 runs in the last 10 overs, including 63 in the batting powerplay (45–50 overs) to take the score to 274/6:.

India got off to a shaky start, after both openers, obtained by Malinga, got Sehwag and Tendulkar inside the first two overs of the innings, with the scoreboard showing thirty-one for. Kohli and Gautam Gambhir started the repair job, playing some sweet shots and effective running between the wickets to reach the mark of 114 before Kohli was caught by the bowler Dilshan for 35. Gambhir was extremely lucky—he was playing on the score of 30 when he mistimed a delivery from Suraj Randiv up in the air, but just escaped when Kulasekara put down a relatively tough chance at long off. Kohli and Gambhir together contributed in 83 runs for the third-wicket stand before discovery of Kohli. **. After the dismissal of Kohli, Dhoni entered at number 5. Gambhir and Dhoni added 109 runs for the fourth wicket. Gambhir scored 97 runs, while Dhoni scored 91 of his runs with the help of 7 fours-7 sixes. Gambhir looked to complete his century with a boundary but was bowled by Thisara. Then they needed just 52 in 52 balls. Yuvraj and Dhoni took India to victory, and Dhoni sealed the match by hitting a six off Kulasekara when only 4 runs were required from 11 balls.[192] Dhoni ended with 91 not out from 79 deliveries. Following this defeat, Sri Lanka had lost their second consecutive World Cup final defeat in ODIs. Burmah, Murali retired from all international cricket at the greatest spin bowler ever in world cricket after the match.[193][194]

2012 Asia Cup

Main article: 2012 Asia Cup

The eleventh edition of Asia Cup was held in Bangladesh. Only four test playing nations were participated. The series was highlighted as a black mark in Sri Lanka's Asia Cup history. Mahela Jayawardene led the team which seemed to be a powerful line up.[195] In the first match, Sri Lanka lost to India by 50 runs. Sangakkara and Jayawardene hit fifties, and it was not to be when Virat Kohli's outstanding hundred proved more than a match-turner for Sri Lanka.[196] Kayes picked up four wickets and Hossain three as the team from Sri Lanka lost their grip—bowled out for a paltry 188 runs—seven needless dismissals of batsmen who could not even touch double digits. Sangakkara was the top scorer with 71 runs, and there was a fifty by Upul Tharanga, who was pushed to at. Pakistan chased down the target in 40th over with a bonus point. Sri Lanka played the final pool game against Bangladesh, in which Bangladesh won the match by 5 wickets in the D/L method. Again, the top order of Sri Lanka collapsed, with the middle order rebuilding the innings up to an eventual total of 232. With this, Sri Lanka failed to reach the final of the Asia Cup for the first time. Sri Lanka also became the first team that is champion of ICC Trophy did not win a match in World T20 Cup history. It is the seventh time that Sri Lanka has not won a single match in the subcontinent and the eighth time in Asia during multi-team tournaments. 2012 ICC World Twenty20

Main article: 2012 ICC World Twenty20

Tillakaratne Dilshan was Sri Lankan captain between 2011 and 2012

Finally, Sri Lanka hosted a World T20 after being the runner-up in 2011 Cricket World Cup. It is the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 that takes place in an Asian country. The last three happened in South Africa, England, and the West Indies. Even for this tournament, ICC has named Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga as the event ambassador. Mahela Jayawarderne led the Sri Lanka side for the second time after 2007 World Twenty20. Sri Lanka had played in Group C together with South Africa and Zimbabwe. All group matches were played at Hambantota.

The first game of the tournament was played between the Host and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe won the toss and asked the Hosts to bat first. They finished off on 182/4 in 20 overs. Then Zimbabwe came in, but it didn't take even that much time to be bowled out for 100. Ajantha Mendis was all over the vultures as he took 6 wickets at the expense of 8 runs, giving the Lankans an 82 run win. This is the best bowling figures in Twenty20 history; that before was also in the name of Mendis against Aussies, 6 for 13.

In the next match against the Proteas, rain broke several times, so that the match was reduced to merely 7 overs apiece. South Africa batted first and AB de Villiers bludgeoned 30 runs from 13 balls to set them up at 78/4 in 7 overs. Sri Lanka wasn't even bad as they put up just 46/5, and none of the other batsmen scored more than 15 runs. South Africa won the match; they beat the opponent by 32 runs, a very huge margin in T20s. But both teams qualified for the Super 8s.

Sri Lanka were in Group 1, together with West Indies, England, and New Zealand. The match against New Zealand was tied, both teams scoring 174. But Sri Lanka had a good chance of winning the match until some confusion and miscalculations produced a tied game in the final over. Sri Lanka ended up winning the Super Over and taking it. They won very easily from West Indies in the next 2 matches[203][204]

The third consecutive Sri Lankan innings at the World T20 semi-final was against the Pakistanis. Sri Lanka piled a target of 140/4 on the board, where Mahela did the pacing of the innings with his 42 runs. Skipper Mohammad Hafeez added 40 runs to the chase, all the other players alluded to Rangana Herath, and in the end, the 16 runs victory laid the title at Sri Lankans' feet for their first T20 title against the West Indies.

Gone for only 3 was Chris Gayle, who had demoralised Australia in the semi-finals when he blasted 5.5 overs to have the West Indies 2-14, Marlon Samuels tonked 78 from 55 balls, including the longest tournament six of 108 metres. Skipper Darren Sammy took over and almost matched that with a blitz that yielded 108 runs in the closing half to leave Sri Lanka needing to score 138 for victory. They also had Sri Lanka struggling at 39/1 in the eighth over, took two run outs and ensured that none of the batsmen crossed 33, which was Jayawardene's score. Kulasekara blazed a brief fightback, scoring 26 runs from 16 balls before he was caught out to have the tail end exposed, and soon Sri Lanka were all out 36 runs short. Samuels was named Man of the Match as the top scoring batsman from either side while also taking 1–15 in his bowling. For the first time, a host nation (Sri Lanka) competed in the final of ICC World Twenty20. The highest wicket-taker was Ajantha Mendis with 15 wickets.[208]

2014 Asia Cup

Main article: 2014 Asia Cup

The twelfth edition of Asia Cup was held in Bangladesh with the participation of four test playing nations and Associate member Afghanistan. After a disastrous previous Asia Cup in 2012, Sri Lanka went to the tournament with a lot of wins from bilateral ODI series. Angelo Mathews led an outfit featuring Tillakaratne Dilshan in the regular opening position, who was ruled out of the series because of injury. They started the campaign by overcoming a spirited Pakistan by just 12 runs behind a five-wicket haul from Malinga. New opener Lahiru Thirimanne scored a magnificent hundred in batting. Malinga's 250th wicket in ODIs came in his 163rd match, making him the fastest Sri Lankan to reach the achievement. In the next game, Sangakkara scored a nerve-wracking 83-ball century to help Sri Lanka overcome India by two wickets. Ajantha Mendis took four wickets for 60 runs in his comeback match.

In the next match, Sangakkara continued his sublime form in the Asia Cup as he guided Sri Lanka to a massive 129-run win over Afghanistan. This happened to be the first of the international level as well between the two teams. With this win, Sri Lanka went through to the final of Asia Cup. In the last pool game, Sri Lanka bowed Bangladesh by 3 wickets. Bangladesh went on to score 204 runs after batting first. Kusal Perera, Sri Lanka's opener, was sent back for a duck on the second delivery of the first over. At one point, Sri Lanka were 75 for 5, until Angelo Mathews and Chaturanga de Silva combined forces with a match-winning partnership for the sixth wicket. Pakistan batted first and posted a total of 260 with the help of Fawad Alam's unbeaten century. Malinga took his sixth ODI five-wicket haul, which was also his third against Pakistan. Sri Lankan openers contributed a 56-run partnership until Kusal Perera was stumped off the bowling of Saeed Ajmal. On the very next ball, Ajmal managed to get the wicket of Sangakkara, giving him a golden duck. Then, Jayawardene partnered with Thirimanne for a total of 156 runs to take the match beyond Pakistan's reach. Thirimanne contributed 101 runs and Sri Lanka won the match, as well as the Asia Cup, by 5 wickets. Thirimanne ended as the highest run-scorer in the series with 279 runs and was awarded the player of the series award. Malinga became the highest wicket taker with 11 wickets and won the man of the match award in the final.[219]

2014 ICC World Twenty20

Main article: 2014 ICC World Twenty20

Lasith Malinga was Sri Lankan captain between 2014 and 2016 in Twenty20 Internationals who won 2014 ICC World Twenty20

As the runner up of previous World T20 competition Sri Lanka went Bangladesh under the captainship of Dinesh Chandimal to 2014 ICC World Twenty20. They played with South Africa, New Zealand, England, and Netherlands in group stage at Super 10 stage. In the first match, the team played with South Africa. Sri Lanka won the toss and opted for batting first. They had a good idea about the Bangladeshi pitches considering the Bangladesh bilateral tournament and the 2014 Asia Cup taking place before the World T20 at the same site. Sri Lankan opener Kusal Perera reminded all sorts of aggressive shots by legendary Sanath Jayasuriya. Kusal's master stroke was a photocopy of Jayasuriya and he devastated Dale Steyn, Morné Morkel, and Lonwabo Tsotsobe. He scored 61 runs off 40 balls giving Sri Lanka a total of 165/7.[220] South Africans was not down as yet, where they progressively built the innings. They came up 5 runs short in the end and with wickets in crucial intervals to the losing side. Kusal was adjudged the Man of the Match.[221]

It was against the highly talented Netherlands, which had just shown the heavy hand of its stroke makers against Ireland in this tournament. But everything cashed out those stroke plays with magnificent bowling by Mathews, Kulasekara, and Malinga in the end. Dutch scored at the lowest team score of 39, all out in a T20I game. Sri Lanka chased this easy target in just 5 overs, which also earned itself the biggest victory in terms of balls remaining in all T20Is.

In the very next match against England, Sri Lanka was beaten by 6 wickets with the courtesy of an unbeaten 116 by Alex Hales. Sri Lanka batted first to post a competitive 189/4. Mahela scored 89 runs. England always maintained the required run rate very well, which gives fast hitting in last few overs to England. England scored 190/4 in 19.2 and won the match.

This last group match went for sure quite thrilling for the teams, with Sri Lanka as the favorite one to win. Injuries sidelined Skipper Chandimal, so Lasith Malinga captained the match. By batting first, Sri Lanka scored only 119 all out, with Mahela recording 25 runs as the best batsman. Blackcaps came to their crease as favourites to win the match because 120 is not a huge task at all to them as smashers: Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, and Corey Anderson. Meanwhile, Anderson was injured and New Zealand played with only 10 players in batting. New Zealand pretty well batted with Guptill and Kane Williamson. Then Malinga decided to go with Rangana Herath, who turned the game into something from nowhere. Herath ball, Guptill, he lunges forward to push to mid-on. Sets off for a single straight away but his partner is not all interested. Advances to the mistake, cuts the ball across, send in a rocket throw and whips the bails off. The stumps dislodged, and with it went Sangakkara. All it took was that run-out because after that it was all about Herath. He stumped skipper McCullum, then caught Ross Taylor in lbw. Finally, Herath bowled James Neesham in first ball he faced. He then captured Luke Ronchi for lbw, and New Zealand were never in the game. Finally New Zealand all out for just 60 runs, which is the lowest score by a test playing nation in Twenty20 Internationals.[230] Herath finished with 5 wickets for 3 runs, earned him Man-of-the-match. With this win, Sri Lanka moved their fourth consecutive World T20 semi-finals,[231]

The semi-final was against defending World T20 champions- West Indies. This time around, hitting total pain on the Windies, Malinga it was, from where Sri Lanka scored 160/6. In reply, the Lankans managed to leave the Caribbeans at 80/4 as rain started to fall. Rain and hail ended the match in the 13.5 overs of the West Indies' innings. Their par was 107 according to the Duckworth–Lewis method. So, Sri Lanka pulled off a D/L-method, 27-run victory. In the presentation West Indies skipper Darren Sammy said, "Rain and god gave Sanga and Mehela" a big farewell party. This World Cup belongs to them. So, good luck to both of them".[234] The final was not easy at all, with their opposition being a difficult one - India. The match was led by Malinga for third time, where he gave permanent T20I captaincy.[235]

Sri Lanka and India had played against each other over sixty times in the past seven years, and the winnings were mostly by India[236]. For this tournament, India—the only unbeaten team—reached the finals, and Sri Lanka lost a match in the group against England. Despite this, statistically there had been little between the two teams during the tournament. [237] India, sent into bat by Sri Lanka after they won the toss, posted 130 runs in their 20 overs. Virat Kohli top scored with 77, but Yuvraj Singh's 11 runs off 21 balls slowed the innings momentum in the final overs. Malinga and Kulasekara bowled exemplary spells at death, which Kohli and Dhoni failed to take full toll of.[238] Sri Lanka chased 134 runs in 17.5 Overs losing 4 wickeks. Kumar Sangakkara  remained not out at 52 runs to take Sri Lanka easily home. Sangakkara was declared Man of the Match as well as Man of the Tournament, and Kohli was declared player of the tournament. After all losses in major World Cups in 4 times finally ends with Champions.[239] With this match, Mahela and Sanga retired from twenty20 internationals.[240] The words of Sammy became true at last.[241][242]

2015 Cricket World Cup

Main article: 2015 Cricket World Cup

In 2015, the World Cup was held in Australia and New Zealand. Sri Lanka was led by Angelo Mathews. The next match was against New Zealand, where Blackcaps scored a huge total of 331/6 with blasted innings of Corey Anderson. Sri Lanka opened very well, but the wickets in crucial intervals gave them a backward push. Lahiru Thirimanne scored 65 runs, and finally, Sri Lanka bowled out for 233, with 98 runs lost at the end.[243]. Afghanistan had a decent start but lost both their openers to bowled deliveries from the first two overs, with the score reading 40/2 in the tenth over. Asghar Stanikzai and Samiullah Shenwari put on a steady third-wicket partnership, on which Afghanistan were 128 in the 28th over, and it was finally broken. After this, Afghanistan kept going at regular intervals to the Sri Lankan pace bowlers before they were finally bowled out for 232 in 49.4 overs. Malinga and Mathews picked 3 wickets each for Sri Lanka.

The innings did get off to a disastrous start for Sri Lanka, whose openers fell for ducks within the second over, the second time in ODI history where this has happened.[245] Then in the sixth over, they lost the wicket of Sangakkara with the score at 18/3. When Dimuth Karunaratne was dismissed in the 12th over, the Sri Lankan total was 51, and they slipped into further trouble. Then the maestro Jayawardene came to the crease. He and Mathews then stitched together 126 runs for the fifth wicket before Mathews was dismissed run out for 44 and Jayawardene was sent packing soon after he completed his 19th ODI hundred. Thisara, who walked in to bat with Sri Lanka in a precarious position of 178/6, clobbered an unbeaten 47 from 26 balls to guide his team to a four-wicket win with ten balls to spare.

Against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka got off to a flier with magnificent hundreds by Dilshan – 161* and Sangakkara – 105*. Note: With this century, Dilshan broke an earlier record of the highest individual score by a Sri Lankan in World Cups by Arvind of 144. This century is also the highest individual score in an ODI without hitting a six. Bangladesh only scored 240/10, and Sri Lanka won the match by 92 runs.

Next match was against the British men, where skipper English captain Eoin Morgan won the toss and decided to bat first. The English openers got off well but from a score of 62/0, the innings was reduced to 101/3 in the 21st over. Joe Root along with Morgan stitched up 60 runs for the 4th wicket before Morgan's wicket. In a partnership for the fifth wicket with James Taylor, they added 98 runs in 11 overs. Taylor was dismissed for 25, whereafter Root too fell for a 108-ball 121. England were 265/6 in the 47th over, when Jos Buttler struck an unbeaten 39 in 19 balls, for the total to end at 309/6 in 50 overs.

Sri Lankan innings began with Thirimanne being dropped on 3. His opening partner Dilshan was out for 44 immediately after their partnership had reached 100 runs. Having not seen too much of the strike early on, Sangakkara came to form a 118-run partnership with Thirimanne as each of the left-handed pair recorded centuries of their own.[250] The latter completed an emphatic 9-wicket victory by hitting a six off the third ball in the 48th over. Thirimanne remained not out, as he had maneuvered his way to 139 off 143 balls. Sangakkara was named Man of the Match for an unbeaten knock off only 86 balls, recording 117 runs in all.[251] This century happened to be the second successive one for Sangakk.

That match against the Australians was a real thriller. Australia batted first, posting a huge 376/9 on the back of a brutal 51-ball century from Glenn Maxwell. Then Sri Lanka started chasing; bad at first, Thirimanne got out early. Then Dilshan joined Sangakkara in a 196-run partnership. Dilshan hit six fours off an over, bowled by Mitchell Johnson, which was the first time this has happened in World Cup history. After dismissal of Dilshan, the middle order failed to get partnerships with Sangakkara, who was batting really well. Sangakkara scored his third consecutive century. With Sanga's wicket, Sri Lanka came tumbling down quickly to 312/9 in 50 overs. Australia won the match by 64 runs.[253] In the last group stage match, Sri Lanka easily thumped Scotland by 148 runs.[254] Sangakkara scored his fourth consecutive century by scoring 124 runs. He became the first batsman in ODI history to score 4 consecutive ODI centuries'.[255][256] Sri Lanka scored 363/9. Scotland was able to manage just 215 runs.[257]

In the quarter-final, Sri Lanka played against South Africa. That match, turned out to be a shocker for all the fans across the globe, where Sri Lanka was out for 133 runs. Sanga scored 45 runs, and all the others were made to jostle by the South African impressive bowling attack of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, and Imran Tahir. The South Africans easily won this match with just one wicket falling. This was the match in which Sangakkara and Jayawardene retired from ODI cricket.[259][260] This match handed Lankans their first defeat once not making to the semi-finals since 1999 World Cup.[261]

2016 Asia Cup

Main article: 2016 Asia Cup

The 2016 Asia Cup was hosted in Bangladesh from 24 February to 6 March 2016. It was the 13th edition of the Asia Cup, the fifth to be held in Bangladesh, and the first to be played using the T20I format. This is due to Asian Cricket Council agreed to play Asia Cup in both ODI and T20I formats in rotational basis with the upcoming ICC major event. Four test playing nations with associate member UAE were participated to the tournament. Sri Lanka entered the tournament as defending champions from the previous edition as well as champions of the 2014 World Twenty20. They were No.1 ranked team in T20I arena at that time. Lasith Malinga led the team in the Asia Cup.[264]

In the first match against UAE, Sri Lanka could score 129 runs only. It is their lowest total against an Associate nation in T20Is. However, with brilliant bowling by Malinga and Kulasekara, Sri Lanka won the match by 14 runs. Malinga took 4 for 26 and Kulasekara took 3 for 10 in the match.[265] After the first match, Malinga was again injured and left out from the tournament. In the next match against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka lost by 23 runs. This was recorded as the first win by Bangladesh against Sri Lanka in T20Is.[266] Sri Lanka lost to India[267] and then to Pakistan very cheaply and removed from the Asia cup. During the tournament, Tillakaratne Dilshan became the first player to score 200 fours in T20Is.[268]

2016 ICC World Twenty20

Main article: 2016 ICC World Twenty20

Angelo Mathews was the Sri Lankan captain between 2013 and 2017

It was during this World Twenty20 series, also held in India, that, in the annals of Sri Lankan cricket history, one of the very big upsets took place. Before the World Twenty20, Sri Lanka played 5 cricket series but lost every series with a single victory against West Indies. Permanent captain Lasith Malinga was injured throughout all series; the new selection committee of the Sri Lanka cricket board appointed Angelo Mathews as the captain for World Twenty20, and Malinga was finally dropped from the squad very quickly due to injury.

Both practice matches were defeated by New Zealand and Pakistan. Sri Lanka entered into the Super 10 stage as the underdog and not as the defending champion. The first match was against Afghanistan, where they batted first and scored 153/7 in 20 overs, with a brilliant fifty by Afghan captain Asghar Stanikzai. Sri Lanka started chasing with a magnificent start, taking 41 runs in the power play. Sri Lanka started their chase with a bang, putting 41 runs in the power play. Dinesh Chandimal was the first one to depart, being caught after making 18 runs. Lahiru Thirimanne also waved his bat to the pavilion after making an individual score of 6 runs. Some shots were scored from Thisara Perera and Chamara Kapugedera; the key performance came from the veteran Tillakaratne Dilshan at the top of the order unbeaten on 83 off 56 balls to finish the series' first game with a win. 

In the second match against the same team, they took a strong position in the group.  Sri Lanka's turn with the bat first-up, they could just manage to put 122/9 in their 20 overs. Few poor umpire decisions went the wrong way for the Lankans as well, including a highly criticized lbw decision given against Dilshan by the commentators.[271] West Indies came to the crease, where Gayle was not in the frame. With the fast start with Andre Fletcher, Windies won the match by 7 wickets.[272]

The third and qualifying-most match in the group came against England. England batted first and scored 171/4 with Jos Buttler's magnificent fifty. Chasing, 171 runs, the Sri Lankan innings again looked very poor, with the score at 50 for 5 wickets after 9 overs. He, Kapugedera along with smashed England spinner in all corners. In the match, the fight went down to the wire at last, but at one moment, defending champions were up for a big defeat until Angelo Mathews came. Sri Lanka lost out on that gem of an innings on one leg, to the game, making 73 runs off 54 balls, not the 10 runs required at the end. But his 54-ball 73 was not enough at the end and Sri Lanka, along with South Africa, were eliminated from the World Twenty20.[275]

The last match was played for the pride between Sri Lanka and South Africa. The start by the Sri Lankans was superb, where Chandimal and Dilshan easily hit through all areas with ease. But after Chandimal was out to Aaron Phangiso, the Sri Lankan battin gcard started falling one after the other. With 19.3 overs, Sri Lanka were all out for just 120 runs. At the end, South Africa won the match easily by 8 wickets. No any Sri Lankan batsmen has been successful throughout the tournament, where veteran Dilshan's 83 was the highest by a Sri Lankan at this World Twenty20. The poor performances in all three departments gave their losses in the tour.[277]

2016-2017 slump in all formats

Dinesh Chandimal is Sri Lankan captain since 2017 to the present

After retirement from three legends—Sangakkara, Mahela, and Dilshan—regularly, the Sri Lankan strength has collapsed. Beginning the 2016–17 cricket season straight after the ICC World Twenty20 2016, Sri Lanka clearly fell in every format of the game and hence moved deeper in ICC Rankings. In 2017, Sri Lanka played 13 Tests, 29 ODIs, and 15 T20Is. In 13 the Tests number of wins was 4, while that of losses was 7. Of 29 ODIs, 5 were won by the Island nation, and in 23 games, Sri Lanka came second. The worst results represented three 5-0 whitewashes, while in 15 T20Is, they won 5 but lost 10. This was already in a tour for South Africa in the beginning of 2017. Sri Lanka won the three-match series 2–1—this was their first-ever series win in any format in South Africa. Sri Lanka, of course, won the T20I series 2–1 over the resting South Africa in the series. The results of the ODI series have not been so good for them; they are facing a 5-0 whitewash.

After the South Africa tour, Sri Lanka next visited Australia for a 3-match T20I series. Due to magical performance by newcomer Asela Gunaratne, they won the series 2–1.[280][281] In March, Sri Lanka hosted Bangladesh for a full series, but things fazed in their backyard. The Test series was drawn by 1-1, by giving Bangladesh their first Test win against Sri Lanka.[282] The ODI series was drawn too 1–1[283] and the T20I series also finished 1–1.[284]

The major event was 2017 ICC Champions Trophy. Sri Lanka was allowed to group B in which India, Pakistan, and South Africa were included. In the first match, South Africa won the match by 96 runs. Then in the second match, Sri Lanka won the match against India by recording Sri Lanka's joint-highest successful run-chase in ODIs and the highest successful run chase by any team in the history of the Champions Trophy.[285] However against Pakistan, Sri Lanka lost the match and were eliminated, largely due to poor fielding performances.[286]

After the Champions Trophy, Zimbabwe toured Sri Lanka again; this time, it portrayed its strength on ODI arenas. Sri Lanka lost the series 3–2, giving Zimbabweans their first ever series win against Sri Lanka. Mathews captaincy was highly criticized after the loss and Mathews said that, the defeat was "one of the lowest points in his career" and stepped down as captain of the team in all three formats next day. Under the new captain Dinesh Chandimal, Sri Lanka won the one-off test by recording the highest successful run chase by any team in a Test in Asia, and the highest successful chase by Sri Lanka in Tests.

India Sri Lanka then faced India in a home series with some confidence from their latest test win and win against India in the Champions Trophy. However all three formats went wrong for Sri Lanka where they lost all 9 matches in the series including three Tests,[292] five ODIs[293] and one-off T20I,[294] where Sri Lanka bagged many worst records in this series. The 5-0 ODI whitewash was registered as the first time that Sri Lanka had suffered a whitewash at home in ODIs. [295] Throughout the series, Sri Lanka tested many captains, but no one demonstrated success. They only won the Test series 2–0, recorded as the first ever win by a visiting team against Pakistan in the UAE. [296] The second Test match in the series was also the first day/night Test for Sri Lanka. [297] The confidence booster in the test series did not pass to the limited over internationals where they suffered their third 5-0 ODI series whitewash as well. [298] Sri Lanka became the first side to be whitewashed 5–0 three times in ODIs in the same calendar year, after previously losing to South Africa in January and India in August. [299]

The last fixture for Sri Lanka in 2017 was against India again, but this time in their home conditions. With some fight in the Test series, India won the series 1–0 with two draws.[300] With 12 consecutive defeats in the ODI arena, Sri Lanka moved to Dharamsala for a 3-ODI series match. In the first ODI, Suranga Lakmal used swinging and seaming bowling performance to rip through Indian batting line-up to restrict them to 112, which is India's third-lowest in ODIs at home and their lowest at home when batting first.[301] Sri Lanka finally won the match by 7 wickets. This victory was Lankans' first win after 12 consecutive losses in ODIs in 2017. The next two matches belonged to India, which Sri Lanka lost 2-1. India won the T20I series 3-0.

The year 2017 has marked as a black mark year in Sri Lanka cricket while in all three formats, especially in the ODI arena. They moved to the number 7 and 8 in World Rankings. Many officials and players were continuously changed and many debuts by international players were seen.[305][306]

2018 Asia Cup

Main article: 2018 Asia Cup

The 14th edition of Asia cup held in UAE for the third time. It featured five test playing nations along with Hong Kong. Sri Lanka added another dark chapter to their golden history and was pushed out of the tournament in a mere three days. Angelo Mathews was named as captain of the team and Lasith Malinga was recalled for ODI team after a year. Bangladesh played against Sri Lanka in the first game and put on 261 for 9 in their 50 overs. Malinga came back with two wickets in the first over of the match and ended with figures of 4 for 23 runs. Tharanga got the chase to a very positive start with three boundaries and a big six. However, Sri Lanka managed to score only 124 runs with wickets at regular intervals, finally losing by a margin of 137 runs. This is recorded as the biggest loss by Sri Lanka in Asia Cup history and lowest total against Bangladesh in ODIs. It is also the biggest defeat for any of the three major Asian teams—India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka—in the Asia Cup. In the next game, Sri Lanka played rising Afghanistan. Shocked by 91 runs to lose to Afghans mostly on poor fielding and batting, this is the first defeat against Afghanistan in their cricketing history. Having batted first, Afghans scored 249 runs. Thisara Perera took a five-wicket haul in the match. In reply, Tharanga top scored with 36 runs and others were fallen to the Afghan spinners.[312]

2019 Cricket World Cup

Main article: 2019 Cricket World Cup

The World cup was held in 2019 – hosted by England and Wales. Dimuth Karunaratne captained Sri Lanka. Even though he captained the Sri Lanka Test team to two memorable wins against South Africa in South Africa, Karunaratne last played ODIs for Sri Lanka in 2015 World Cup. The first match was against New Zealand where Sri Lanka was bowled out for 136 in 29.2 overs. Karunaratne scored an unbeaten fifty where eight players scored 10 and less than 10 runs. Karunaratne reached the milestone of becoming the second cricketer to carry his bat in a World Cup match.[315] New Zealand took to the campaign in the World Cup with a comfortable victory as they bowled out Afghanistan for a lowly total of 201 runs and then chased the target losing no wickets.[316]. Sri Lankan bowlers led by Malinga and Nuwan Pradeep secured the match for Sri Lanka by restricting Afghans for 152 runs. With career best 4 wickets for 31 runs, Pradeep won man of the match award.[317]

The next two games against Pakistan[318] and Bangladesh[319] were washed out due to rain which earned Sri Lanka two points to move up in the table. In the next game, playing against Australia, Sri Lanka lost by 87 runs. Batting first, Australia scored 334 runs, with the century coming from Aaron Finch. Against this, the Sri Lankan openers did give a great start by accumulating 115 runs, with the chase reading 15 overs. Kusal was dismissed on 52 and when Karunaratne was out for 97 years, it was surely a picture-perfect chase from there. After the two wickets, Australia took the momentum back and restricted Sri Lanka for 247 runs.[320]

After two big losses and two abandoned games, Sri Lanka was at the brink of eliminating from the World Cup. But they continued to dominate the favorites and eventual World Cup champions and hosts England for the fourth time consecutively in World Cup history. Sri Lanka batted first and scored a modest total of 232/9.[321] Mathews top scored with an unbeaten 85. In another important match, while chasing, Lasith Malinga opened up in the second ball of the match to pick Jonny Bairstow and then for 14 James Vince. Wickets at regular intervals slowed down the England chase, where Dhananjaya de Silva scalped two wickets in one over to favor the game toward Sri Lanka. English all-rounder Ben Stokes continued to delay Sri Lanka's win, scoring an unbeaten 82 runs. Finally, England lost the match by 20 runs. With figures of 4 for 43, veteran quick Malinga won the man of the match award. With this stunning win, the race for the final four was reopened, and England was in trouble to reach the semi-finals. During the match, he became the fourth bowler to scalp 50 wickets in World Cup history, along with fellow Sri Lankan Murali, Pakistani pacer Wasim Akram, and Aussie pacer Glenn McGrath. He also became the quickest to achieve this milestone by completing 26 innings in the World Cups.

Sri Lanka had to win the next match to stay in the race for reaching the final four. They lost that match against South Africa by nine wickets, where none of the Sri Lankan batters managed to score more than 50 runs. The result meant the knock-out for Sri Lanka from the World Cup, just as it ended the journey for Bangladesh. The next match was against West Indies. Sri Lanka piled up 338/6 batting first, and in the process, Avishka Fernando scored his maiden ODI century to become the youngest Sri Lankan to score a World Cup century. Against them, a West Indian youngster scored the same century, although West Indies were never in control, with the youngest being Nicholas Pooran. For the first time in the history of the World Cup, two men aged under 25 years scored hundreds in the same match. Then came perhaps the wildest ball of the tournament, when Angelo Mathews bowled the 48th over of the chase, not having bowled a single ball earlier in this World Cup or, for that matter, in any ODI since December 2017.[331] In his first ball, Pooran edged the ball and was dismissed. It once again added to the mounting returns of the match in Sri Lanka's favor with momentum. In the end, Sri Lanka won the game by 23 runs.[332] In this entire tournament, this was Sri Lanka's last and final game against India. Here, Sri Lanka scored 264 runs in 50 overs with the help of Angelo Mathews' century, exactly 100 runs. This was his third one-day international century, all coming against India. India chased the target in 43 overs and won the match by 7 wickets.[333] In the final count of the tournament ranking, Sri Lanka was sixth on the table, with 3 wins, 4 losses, and 2 abandoned matches.

2020s[edit]

2021 ICC T20 World Cup

Main article: 2021 ICC T20 World Cup

As the top-ranked side previously in T20 cricket, Sri Lanka was forced to play in a qualifying tournament to gain entry to the 2020 T20 World Cup because of lower rankings. After losing 12 of its 16 most recent matches in 2018, it slipped to ninth in the T20 rankings, which took it outside the zone necessary for automatic entry into the "Super 12" round of the competition. Rather, it will have to end up in the top two of a total of four groups in the opening round of the competition to go further into the part of the competition into which the top eight meet.

Sri Lanka had a smooth start to their campaign by winning their first match of the World Cup against Namibia by 7 wickets. Namibia batted first and only managed to make 96 runs, of which Maheesh Theekshana weaved his magic to break open the opposition batting order into pieces.[337] In the second match, against Ireland, Sri Lanka, while batting first, lost three wickets for less than ten runs. But then the team managed to score 150-plus, first time that has occurred in T20Is courtesy of 123 run partnership between Pathum Nissanka and Wanindu Hasaranga, the highest for the fourth wicket in T20 World Cups. [338] In the end Ireland bowled out for 101 runs and Sri Lanka won by 70 runs and moved to the Super 12s round. [339] Sri Lanka then played against Netherlands in their final Group 1 fixture. Netherlands, on the other hand, was sent packing for 44 runs only, which was the second-lowest in the history of men T20 World Cup. This was also the lowest total by any team in T20 in UAE. Sri Lanka won by 8 wickets with 77 balls to spare. With this win, Sri Lanka assured their place in Group A with Australia, South Africa, England, West Indies, and Bangladesh.

In Group A, Sri Lanka played their opening match against Bangladesh, with a score of 171 that was set in the second innings of the match. In the chase, Charith Asalanka produced the innings of the match, stroking 80 not out off 49 balls, whereas Bhanuka Rajapaksa hit 53 off 31, guided Sri Lanka to a 5-wicket win.[342] In the next match against Australia, Sri Lanka lost to them by 7 wickets.[343] Then against South Africa, Sri Lanka was within touching distance of winning the game before David Miller plundered 15 runs in the final over to give the game to South Africa. However, in the match, Hasaranga got a hat trick, becoming first Sri Lankan to take a hat trick in a T20 World Cup.[344] Against England, Sri Lanka faced a must win situation to qualify for semi-finals. Even though Hasaranga impressed with both bat and ball in the match, England finally won the match by 26 runs, courtesy of Jos Butler's century in that match.[345] On 4 November 2021, Sri Lanka played the final match of the tournament against defending champions West Indies. Sri Lanka, batting first, scored a total of 189 runs on the back of fifties from Asalanka and Nissanka. West Indies only managed 169 runs with Sri Lanka finishing the tournament with a 20-run win.[346] Meanwhile, Hasaranga ended the tournament as the highest wicket taker with 16 scalps, beating the previous record of 15 wickets by fellow Sri Lankan Ajantha Mendis.[347] Later, both Asalanka and Hasaranga were included in the ICC T20 World Cup team of 2021.

2022 Asia Cup

Main article: 2022 Asia Cup

The 15th edition of the Asia Cup was conducted in the UAE for the fourth time and in T20I format. Five Test-playing nations, along with Hong Kong, participated in the tournament. In first match against Afghanistan, Sri Lanka scored a mere 105 runs as Afghans managed to score it in just 10 overs.[348]. In the next match, which was a must-win game, Bangladesh batted first and made a total of 183 runs for 20 overs. Kusal Mendis counter attacked with a 37-ball 60; Dasun Shanaka launched a 33-ball 45, and in the end came runs from Chamika Karunaratne, Asitha Fernando and Maheesh Theekshana to eventually win by 2 wickets with 3 balls to spare. Super 4s saw Sri Lanka facing Afghanistan once again, and this team managed a good total this time. With this win, Sri Lanka finally managed to break their six-match losing streak in Asia Cups; this is also their first win since beating UAE in 2016. In response, Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis provided a steady start at the top, before relatively fast contributions from Danushka Gunathilaka, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, and Wanindu Hasaranga helped win it for them. 

In the next match against favorites India, who batted first, they managed to make 173/8, thanks to a fifty from Rohit Sharma. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli fell for a duck to a delivery of an immense inswing from fast bowler Dilshan Madushanka. Sri Lanka were given a decent start by Kusal Mendis and Pathum Nissanka, who put 97 runs together in 11.1 overs and both reached their fifties. In the end, it was Rajapaksa and Shanaka who combined in the match-winning partnership, and this was their third successive 170-plus chase. The win sealed a spot in the final of the Asia Cup for Sri Lanka. In the next and final Super 4 match, Sri Lanka once again beat Pakistan by 5 wickets. Pakistan could only manage 121 runs as the chase was done by 48-ball 55 from Pathum Nissanka. With this win, Sri Lanka became the only team to win all three games in this year's Asia cup. Sri Lanka met Pakistan again in the final; Sri Lanka batted first, from 58 for 5, they later reached 170 for 6. Rajapaksa scored 71 in 45 balls, and Hasaranga made a cameo 36 in 21 balls. In the chase, Madushan's two-in-two to remove Babar and Fakhar Zaman set the tone, and eventually Pakistan was bowled out for 147. Sri Lanka won the match by 23 runs and became Asia Cup champions for their 6th times. Later, Hasaranga won the player of the series award.

2022 ICC T20 World Cup

Main article: 2022 ICC Men's T20 World Cup

The T20 World Cup in Australia was its eighth edition, and Sri Lanka, captained by Dasun Shanaka, took part in the tournament. They contested in the first round to get qualified for the main round. In the first round, Sri Lanka was in Group A along with Namibia, Netherlands, and United Arab Emirates. In the first match against Namibia, Sri Lanka lost the match by a considerable 55 runs, which made the black patch in the glorious history of Lankan cricket.[358] Namibia scored 163 in 20 overs whereas in reply, Sri Lanka bowled out for 108 runs inside 19 overs.[359][360] Shanaka's score of 29 was the highest score for Sri Lanka and the victory for Namibia is highlighted as the biggest upset in the history of their men's side.[361] After a disastrous start at the World Cup, Sri Lanka played a must-win game against UAE at Geelong. Sri Lanka batted first scoring 152/8 with the help of Pathum Nissanka's 74. UAE, in their chase, were bowled out for 73 runs as Sri Lanka won by 79 runs.[362] In chasing, Sri Lanka scored 162 runs, where Kusal Mendis was the top scorer with 79 runs against Netherlands.[363] Even though Max O'Dowd scored unbeaten 71 runs in chasing, Netherlands lost the match by 16 runs, and Sri Lanka qualified for the Super 12 stage.[364]

In Super 12, Sri Lanka grouped in Group 1 with host Australia, England, New Zealand, Ireland and Afghanistan. Facing Ireland, Sri Lankans comfortably won the match with net run rate that soared to 2.467. Kusal Mendis made the match-winning knock of an unbeaten 68 off 43 deliveries.[365] In the second match, Sri Lanka faced the hosts Australia. Sri Lanka managed to post 157/6 at the end of the 20 overs, with 40 runs unbeaten by Nissanko and Asalanka chipping. Australia did get off to a great start, taking 13.4 overs before the score reached 100, and eventually requiring 69 from 46 balls; [366] then Marcus Stoinis made fastest 50 for Australia in men's T20Is off 17 balls, as Australia won by 7 wickets with 21 balls remaining. [367] [368] Sri Lanka's next opponents were New Zealand, where all three of New Zealand's opening wickets fell for just 15 runs. But Glenn Phillips went on to score a century after two dropped chances, and New Zealand finished with 167/7 in 20 overs. In return, Sri Lanka never got going and were bowled out for 102 in 19.2 overs.

In the must-win match against Afghanistan, Dhananjaya De Silva scored an unbeaten 66 to chase the 144 scored by the Afghans. In bowling, Hasaranga got 3 for 13 as Sri Lanka kept hopes alive for the semifinal race if they win the final game against England. Batting first against England, Sri Lanka scored 141 runs with 67 from Nissanka. The England chase started really well with 75 runs on the board inside 7.2 overs. They did lose wickets in regular intervals and had the chase down to 13 runs from 12 balls. But Ben Stokes took his team to the semi-final as Sri Lanka exited the World Cup in fourth place in the group.

Asia Cup 2023

The sixteenth edition of Asia Cup was conducted in Pakistan and Sri Lanka with Pakistan as the official host. Sri Lanka was captained by Shanaka and group with Bangladesh, and Afghanistan was in Group B. In the very first match, Sri Lanka took on Bangladesh in Pallekele. Bangladesh was bundled for the total of 164 runs in 42.4 overs, where Matheesha Pathirana] took 4 wickets for just 32 runs. In chase, Sadeera Samarawickrama scored 54, and Asalanka made unbeaten 62 runs. Sri Lanka comfortably won the match by 5 wickets. Against Afghanista, the Sri Lankans batted first in the batting-friendly wickets of Lahore and were able to put on 291 runs, where Kusal Mendis made 94 runs. Throughout the innings, the solid Afghan team was able to pass 200 within 26 overs. Mohammad Nabi scored 65 runs and for qualification into the semi finals, Afghanistan needed 27 from 13 balls. Dhananjaya de Silva took the ball at the end of 37th over, when Afghanistan needed three runs off one ball to win the game and qualify. He castled the opener on the very first ball, but still had to defend 295 off 37.4 overs. With the fourth delivery, de Silva bowled Fazalhaq Farooqi, lbw, to take Sri Lanka into the Super Fours with a two-run win.

In the first match in the Super Fours, Sri Lanka played against their own rivals, Bangladesh, and batted first, scoring 257/9 in 50 overs. Samarawickrama managed to score 93 and Mendis scored 50. Bangladesh had a decent start in the chasing process and were on their way to making a total that was balanced. However, despite 82 from Towhid Hridoy, Sri Lanka won the match by 21 runs.[376] Their next match was against India, where India were bowled out for 213 in 49.1 overs by Dunith Wellalage taking home a five-fer and Asalanka for a four-fer.[377] In reply, Sri Lanka were 5 for 73 and finally all wickets fallen at 172. Wellalage remained unbeaten on 42 runs and was adjudged player of the match for his all-round performance in the match for his performance with the bat and the ball.[378] In the must-win game against Pakistan, Mohammad Rizwan made unbeaten 86 runs, and Pakistan managed to set a target of 252 runs in front of Sri Lanka. The DT^102 of the innings set to chase by Sri Lanka was 252 powered by Mendis's 91 runs. Despite the wickets at regular intervals, Sri Lanka still needed herculean efforts after scoring 12 runs from 12 balls, then to 8 runs from 6 balls with three wickets in hand.[379] Sri Lanka needed 6 runs in 2 balls, to the wicket of Asalanka who scored 4 runs but made the two runs needed on the final ball to take Sri Lanka home to the Asia Cup final for the 11th time in its history.[380]

The last match played at Colombo was played between host Sri Lanka and India. Sri Lanka going out to bat first, within a minute, did the wrong thing as they were bowled out for just 50 runs, only for their decision to go wrong very early on as they were bowled out, in front of a home crowd, under the swing bowling of Mohammed Siraj, who picked up 6 wickets, for just 21 runs. Five Sri Lanka batsmen made ducks and the total was recorded as the lowest all-out total in any major international final.[381] This is also Sri Lanka's second-lowest ODI total. India won the Asia cup for a record seventh time.[382]

2023 Cricket World Cup

Main article: 2023 Cricket World Cup

The 1996 champions of the Cricket World Cup, Sri Lanka, lost the automatic qualification for the 13th edition of the Cricket World Cup held in India. Sri Lanka had to compete with nine other nations in the 2023 Cricket World Cup Qualifier held in Zimbabwe for qualification into the World Cup. However, Sri Lanka won all the matches in the tournament and claimed the place in 2023 Cricket World Cup along with the Netherlands.[383] Reached the first spot in the qualifier tournament, where Sri Lanka beat the Netherlands with a thumping 128 in the final.

Shanka declared the captain for the world cup just prior to the world cup after many debates. But, he had to walk out of the tournament after the match against Pakistan owing to the injury, and Kusal Mendis is named as the stand-in captain for the rest of the tournament. And in the very first match against South Africa, the Lankan team managed a huge defeat, where Proteas posted a mammoth 428/5 courtesy of three centuries of de Kock, Markram, and van der Dussen. In response, Sri Lanka lost their first two wickets before reaching 67. Cutlet Mendis counterattacked the pace attack of the Proteas, with a mighty 76 off 42 balls and 8 sixes in the process. Asalanka made an up-tempo 79 and Shanaka 68, but Sri Lanka lost by 102 runs.[386] Sri Lanka batted first in the second game with Pakistan and scored a total of 344 runs with twin centuries, one from Mendis and the other from Samarawickrama. While chasing, India lost two wickets for 37 before Abdullah Shafique and Mohammad Rizwan struck a 176-run partnership to overhaul Sri Lanka's target in 48.2 overs. They surpassed the previous highest successful run chase in World Cup history of 339. Sri Lanka went on to record their highest ICC Men's Cricket World Cup chase at the expense of Sri Lanka. Pakistan went on to record their second victory in the tournament, condemning Sri Lanka to their second defeat in as many games. Pakistan now remains unbeaten against Sri Lanka in the men's ODI World Cup, with the two sides meeting on eight occasions, which also happens to be the most lopsided head-to-head record at the World Cup.

In the third game, Sri Lanka lost miserably to Australia by 6 wickets. This time, it was a solid foundation built by both openers: Kusal Perera and Pathum Nissanka, scoring fifties. Sri Lanka raced to 125 in 21 overs. But following the loss of openers, the Sri Lankans lost the plot, as the entire team was bowled out for 209 runs; they lost all ten wickets for just 84 runs.[389] Dilshan Madushanka got three early wickets during his bowling efforts,[390] but Australia reached the target within 35.2 overs.[391] Against the Netherlands, the Sri Lankans went on to win the match by 5 wickets when the luxury of an unbeaten 91 from Samarawickrama steered them home.[392]

Sri Lanka were to next face the defending champions, England. This is where they have an upper hand in the world cups also; previously they have won all of the world cups against England. England makes a score of 40 runs without losing a wicket in the powerplay. Then they lost the whole of their batting for 111 in 26 overs, with Lahiru Kumara taking 3 for 35 yet again to bowl magnificently. Sri Lanka, though, rattled the target in 25.4 overs with 148 balls to maintain its stranglehold over England in world cups. After consolidating the win, the boost saw Sri Lanka play Afghanistan. Sri Lanka, after batting, could only make 241 where Nissanka topped off with 46. Afghanistan chased it with ease and Sri Lanka was more or less out of contention for a place in the semi-final from there on. Sri Lanka's next match was against India, the team which had inflicted a deep scar in the Asia Cup final weeks earlier. In the match, India managed to score 357/8 in 50 overs, thus setting a huge target for the Lankans. Within 19.4 overs, Sri Lanka was all bundled out for 55 runs, making the third score less than 100 against India in this year, and India won by 302 runs. When the eighth wicket fell, Sri Lanka only had 29 runs on the board and were in serious danger of folding in the lowest total in ODI cricket. [395]

The next match was against the rivals, Bangladesh. Sri Lanka managed to score 273 runs in 50 overs, with Asalanka himself scoring a ton in the process. The special incidence occurred when veteran Angelo Mathews was declared out by Time Out, the first instance in international cricket. The incident brought huge criticism from the cricketing community, but Bangladesh and match officials underlined that everything was under the law. Bangladesh chased down the target in 41.1 overs, and the rival rise continued when Shakib Al Hasan dismissed Mathews and gestured for a timed out-fitting celebration. This was the first match in which they lost to Bangladesh in world cups. In the final match, Sri Lanka met New Zealand. Sri Lanka failed to make a big score once again, with Kusal Perera scoring a quick 51 off 28 balls with 9 fours and 2 sixes. New Zealand won the game comfortably by 5 wickets.[401] Sri Lanka wrapped the tournament up in ninth place, with only 2 wins. This also resulted in the exit from qualification for the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy, very low net run rate. This World Cup put in place several black marks in Sri Lankan ODI history and, worse still, they lost to Afghanistan and Bangladesh on the cheap in the process.