New Zealand and Sri Lanka open World Twenty20
The 2010 World Twenty20 begins when New Zealand and Sri Lanka clash in an intriguing match at Providence Stadium, Guyana.
Past Twenty20 matches between the two sides, and there have so far been six of them, have seen the honours evenly shared, but Sri Lanka were runners-up when the World Twenty20 was held in England last year.
The Blackcaps though have a habit of almost over-performing in ICC tournaments – the rankings say New Zealand are currently the fourth best One-Day International side, but they were finalists at the Champions Trophy in South Africa last year.
There are plenty of positives too for the Kiwis to draw from their two winning warm-up matches against Ireland and the West Indies. In the prelude to the main event, Jesse Ryder (64 from 30) was in captain Daniel Vettori’s assessment “outstanding” with his top order batting against Ireland, and against the West Indies Scott Styris shone with 4-18 and he was well supported by Shane Bond, who took 2-15.
That’s not to mention the danger Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor represent to opposition bowlers. In Sri Lanka though, New Zealand’s batsmen are facing a bowling attack which combines the raw pace of Lasith Malinga (pictured) with the spin stylings of Ajantha Mendis, each of whom took 12 wickets in last year’s World Twenty20. And let’s not forget off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, the leading wicket-taker in both Test and ODI cricket.
All eyes will be on 2009 player of the World Twenty, Tillakaratne Dilshan, the inventor of the ‘Dilscoop’ back over the wicketkeeper’s head, but Sri Lanka’s batting runs deeper than just one man with Mahela Jayawardene anchoring the top order and wicketkeeper-batsmen, and captain, Kumar Sangakkara completing the key batting trifecta.
Logic says that against such a well-balanced team, New Zealand will come off second-best but the record between the teams suggests that it’s not clear cut either.
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