New Zealand compound Sri Lanka woes – Zealand announced themselves as a serious challenger to win the T20 World Cup – BY TREVINE RODRIGO IN MELBOURNE.
Glen Phillips thrived on butterfingered Sri Lanka to pull New Zealand out of early strife, and then New Zealand’s bowlers ripped the heart out of Sri Lanka’s batting to give the Kiwis an easy 65 run win in Sydney.
The burly Middle order batsmen sprayed the Sri Lanka attack with consummate ease riding his luck on atrocious fielding to post 104 off 64 balls with 4 sixers and 10 fours to pull the New Zealanders to relative safety after an early collapse, to a defendable 167.
Sri Lanka threw down the gauntlet early in the piece, then disintegrated to total disarray thanks to shocking fielding, and lapses that reduced a serious challenger to an absolute pretender, to be thrashed by a professional contender to this edition of the T20 World Cup.
The stark contrast between the two teams was how New Zealand bounced back from an early shock of losing three wickets for 15 in the first four overs to post 167
Sri Lanka had no such heart crashing to 4 for eight after Pathum Nissanka led the procession with a 5 ball duck in the very first over.
Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Ferguson ripped through Sri Lanka’s fragile batting at will before the spinners finished the rout.
Only Bhanuka Rajapakse and skipper Dasun Shanaka offered some resistance in an embarrassing chase.
Sri Lanka’s plans at the outset, was to confuse and ruffle New Zealand’s best laid plans, and they did that with crafty bowling changes that had a telling effect on the New Zealand top order batsmen to a point.
Opening with spinner Maheesh Theeksheena proved to br a master plan when they grabbed a wicket in the first over to rattle New Zealand.
Injury to their main pacemen forced Sri Lanka to bring in Kasun Rajitha who thrived on the conditions in Sydney and together with the spin – pace strategy, they stifled New Zaland’s batting giving the Lankans hope of an upset. It was a dream that never eventuated thanks to some irresponsible batting and a well drilled New Zealand bowling attack that continues to decimate batsmen, insimilar fashion to the rout against Australia.
The big win propelled New Zealand to a position of strength in their group and are certain to make the semi finals.
The tournament at it stands, is wide open to anyone, thanks to the inclement and unseasonal weather that is unsettling the predicted favourites and impacting the points table. The example of Ireland upsetting England is a stark case in point.
The toss being an important factor, and Sri Lanka lost, putting them behind the eight ball, ensured they were given the task of keeping New Zealand under control.
The bowlers did their bit, the fielders let them down and it looked like all the best laid plans were derailed.
Sri Lanka looked like they had an ingenious game plan. It seemed on course at the outset, then everything fell apart as their bowlers and fielding fell apart letting the Kiwis flee to a period of safety.
Their batting, which has been a point of conjecture, then proved to be why they can Never consider themselves a force in this competition as they floundered and tumbled in comical succession to a proven lethal and well coordinated attack that reduced them to rubble.
All aspirations of a Sri Lanka upset dissipated with a lacklustre follow through in their batting to a well orchestrated bowling strategy that delivered shock dividends to New Zealand and their belief that their of glory was nigh.
As for SriLanka, from now, it’s ‘Kay Sera,
