The T20 World Cup 2026 witnessed a powerful and record-breaking performance at the Pallekele International Stadium on February 12, as Sri Lanka captain Dasun Shanaka played one of the most explosive innings in the history of the tournament against Oman in the Group B match.
Dasun Shanaka’s half-century in 19 balls brightened the T20 World Cup 2026 and created history.
Dasun Shanaka came to bat in the final overs when Sri Lanka were already heading towards a big score. The captain did not waste any time in settling down and attacked from the very first ball and completely destroyed Oman’s bowling in the death overs.
He strongly attacked Oman’s Jiten Ramanandi, Nadeem Khan and Sufyan Mahmood. Shanaka used powerful lofted drives and strong sweeps to cross the boundary and the fielders could only watch. Shanaka completed his half-century in just 19 balls.
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With this amazing effort, Shanaka has scored the fastest half-century by a Sri Lankan in T20 World Cup history. He broke the prestigious and long-standing record of the great Mahela Jayawardene, who scored a half-century in 21 balls against Kenya in the 2007 T20 World Cup.
Dasun Shanaka equals Rohit Sharma’s captaincy record
Dasun Shanaka also equaled the record for the fastest half-century by a captain in T20 World Cup history by scoring fifty in 19 balls. He equaled the record of Rohit Sharma. The former Indian captain had achieved this feat against Australia in 2024 when he led the team to its second T20 World Cup title.
However, Shanaka’s innings ended in the 19th over when he was caught at long off by Nadeem Khan. He returned to the pavilion after scoring 50 runs in 20 balls with the help of 4 fours and 5 skyscraper sixes. Shanaka already holds the record for the fastest T20I half-century for Sri Lanka.
He scored a half-century in 20 balls against India in Pune in 2023. This innings was also personally important for Shanaka. Before the current T20 World Cup, he was facing criticism due to some low scores. Many people were raising questions on his form and captaincy.
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But on this big stage he gave a strong reply with his bat. Even though the Sri Lankan captain missed out on a big score, his work was already done. His explosive innings took Sri Lanka to a mammoth score of 225 runs for 5 wickets in 20 overs in the ongoing Group B match.
Despite early LBW setbacks, Sri Lanka scored 225 runs
Earlier, both Pathum Nissanka (13) and Kamil Mishara (8) were out LBW early. Kusal Mendis played a brilliant inning of 61 runs but was run out, while Pawan Ratnayake was bowled by Jiten Ramanandhi after scoring 60 runs. Dasun Shanaka was also brilliant.
Finally, Kamindu Mendis (19*) and Dunith Velez (6*) also made important contributions to the big scores. For Oman, Jiten took 2 wickets, while Sufyan Mahmood and Jay Odedra took one wicket each. Sri Lanka also added 8 extra runs in the match.
Shanaka has played 126 T20I matches so far and scored 1,797 runs. The Sri Lankan all-rounder has scored seven half-centuries in T20Is so far. He is one of only five players to score more than 1,500 runs for Sri Lanka in this format. Overall, Shanaka is close to reaching 6,000 runs in T20.