Sri Lanka achieve comfortable win over New Zealand
Sri Lanka produced another clinical performance as they defeated New Zealand by three wickets at Dambulla. This was the 2nd ODI in the triangular tournament featuring http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 as the third team. Despite losing the toss, Kumar Sangakkara’s team showed their class as they chased a modest 192 in dim lights at Dambulla.
Sri Lanka started the match confidently as its bowlers dominated Kiwi batsmen. With little assistance from the wicket, Sri Lanka’s bowling unit, led by Malinga and Mathews dismissed New Zealand for a marginal 192.
Malinga started the proceedings for hosts as he removed Martin Guptill in the opening spell. Kulasekara used his pace to extract maximum seam movement from the other end. Facing such bowling, the visitors changed their gear as they batted for survival. Seeing this shift in Black Caps’ strategy, Sangakkara removed Malinga and brought in Mathews. Initially, it looked as if Sangakkara made the wrong decision as Mathews was smashed for consecutive boundaries in his first two overs. But Mathews made a startling comeback as he struck in his third over to bewilder New Zealand. Ross http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915, New Zealand’s captain was trapped by Mathews’ canny bowling. Keeping his momentum, he removed Kane Williamson in the next over as Williamson was caught brilliantly by Thilan Samaraweera in the first slip.
After early setbacks, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 recovered partly as Scott Styris and Watling contributed for a 52-run fourth-wicket stand. But their resistance was broken down by some clever bowling by Rangana Herath and Mathews, which left the visitors lingering at 101 for 5. Malinga was brought back into the attack as the speedster used his pace to extract two wickets from two balls leaving the visitors on 123 for 7. Despite such dominant bowling on behalf of Sri Lanka, New Zealand refused to bow down as Nathan McCullum, along with the Kiwi lower order fought Sri Lankan onslaughts to post a defendable total of 192.
Sri Lanka started their chase cautiously as dim lights at Dambulla further increased the difficulty for batsmen. As Daryl Tuffey and Kyle http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 will win the match comfortably.
In order to gain bonus point, Sangakkara used the power-play in the 35th over and with 50 runs remaining. However, this strategy failed as Sri Lanka lost wickets regularly and failed to achieve the target in 40 overs. But they won the match by three wickets and achieved the target with 9.1 overs to spare.
Sri Lanka will be pleased with their current performance and recent results as they prepare to win the World Cup for a second time next year. Mahela Jayawardene, Sri Lanka’s former Test captain and leading run scorer, is optimistic about his side chances in the next global event. He believes that the current series will inadvertently assist Sri Lanka as it will provide them with much-needed match practise. He said, “Now we can get on the road to the World Cup. Starting with the tri-series, not just us but other teams too will be trying to get their final combinations right. They will try a few things here and there before they make their decisions for the World Cup”.
Cricket World Cup 2011 will be jointly hosted by all nations of the Sub-Continent, except http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755. According to Jayawardene, Sri Lanka has almost finalized their combination for the World Cup. He said, “We have more or less sorted out the 17-18 players out of whom the squad of 15 for the World Cup will be picked. Openings are few and far between. Perhaps the second all-rounder's spot, to go with Angelo Mathews, is open. One more spinning option, and maybe a fast-bowling spot, is the ones people will be fighting for”.
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