Sri Lanka beat New Zealand by 3 wickets
Sir Lanka completed their 2nd win in the Tri nation one day tournament at home, as they beat New Zealand by 3 wickets at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium. Lasith Malinga and Angelo Mathews led the way with the ball by taking 3 wickets each. It was Samaraweera, with the bat, who guided his team to the modest but fighting target of 196 in the 41st over.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Taylor-c92915 won the toss and elected to bat first. The trend on Sri Lankan wickets in general has been that teams batting first make best use of batting and bowling conditions. Martin Guptill and Bradley Watling opened the batting for the visitors. Guptill was the first to go he was caught in the slips by Kapugedera off Malinga’s bowling for naught on the first ball he faced.
Next man in was captain Ross Taylor, the right hander found it tough against the new ball. Taylor and Watling put on 25 for the 2nd wicket. Next man to go was Taylor; he was out adjudged LBW on 16 from 34 balls with just 2 fours. He was dismissed by Angelo Mathews.
The Sri Lankan attack kept a right id on the scoring rate, and did not let the Kiwi batsmen to get away at any stage. Kane Williamson was in next but did not manage to get off the mark. He was caught in the slips by Samaraweera off Mathews bowling. At 47 for 3, New Zealand needed a partnership and Watling and Scot Styris added 52 runs for the 4th wicket. The scoring rate however was not ideal and Styris was dismissed for 24 runs from 33 balls with just one four. He was caught by Jayawardene off the bowling of the left arm spinner Herath.
Wicketkeeper batsman Gareth Hopkins was in next. Watling, however left soon after Styris’ dismissal; Watling was caught behind off the bowling of Mathews for his 3rd wicket. He scored 55 runs from 68 balls with 8 fours.
All rounder Nathan McCullum and Hopkins added 22 runs before Hopkins was caught off Malinga’s bowling after scoring just 11 runs. McCullum however carried on and with some support from the lower order was able to take the score to 192. New Zealand were all out in the 49th over at 192. Malinga and Mathews got 3 each whereas Herath got 2 wickets for the home side.
The chase looked to be a straight forward one, but the start for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mills-c76321.
Captain, Kumar Sangakkara put on a good stand alongside Upul Tharanga for the 2nd wicket. The pair added 85 runs. The stand was broken when Sangakara was caught off the bowling of Styris for 48 runs from 62 balls with 5 fours. Former captain Mahela Jayawardene could not impress much and was dismissed for just 5 runs. Samaraweera though looked in good touch but at that time Black Caps looked in control and squeezed the Lankan batting. Tharanga and Samaraweera battled through and put on 43 runs for the 4th wicket. After Tharanga was dismissed for 70 it was up to Samaraweera to guide the team home.
Mathews and Kulasekara fell cheaply, but Samaraweera held his nerve and took the team to victory with more than 9 overs to spare. Samaraweera scored 36 not out and Upul Tharanga was named man of the match for his 70 runs.
Tags: