Sheep to the slaughterhouse in Auckland – Sri Lanka surrender in the house of pain – BY TREVINE RODRIGO IN MELBOURNE (eLanka Sports editor)
The Test series was a disaster, so Sri Lanka changed focus and sought solace and new direction from the one day series. But that dream of a reversal of fortunes quickly dissipated to horror as New Zealand thrashed the hapless Lankans in the first one-dayer at the garden of pain in Auckland.
Known over the ages for being a venue where the Kiwis are unstoppable, mainly in Rugby Union, the Lankans were quickly reminded about this statistic as New Zealand’s batters and bowlers ran riot to complete an embarrassing demolition of the visiting Islanders.
Dasun Shanaka and his team will reflect on a lack of proper preparation and planning of the tour where most of the squad were given insufficient time to acclimatise and work out the conditions, and they rightly got what they deserved.
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Questions should be asked of the Sri Lanka administration for the lack of understanding of how a tour is organised, and the importance of familiarisation in alien conditions.
What was most disappointing was that the the Kiwis sans their main strike weapons still skittled the Sri Lankans in just 19.5 overs for a mere 76 runs proving a mismatch of gigantic proportion.
No Trent Boult, no Tim Southee, no worries was the Kiwi mindset as Henry Shipley stepped into the groove wreaking havoc on a clueless batting line-up. He grabbed 5 for 31off seven overs and with Daryl Mitchell 2 for 12 and Blair Tickner 2 for 20 they completed a superb demolition job.
Sri Lanka in this mindset are staring down the barrel of another whitewash and having to qualify with the minnows to make the top tier of the upcoming World Cup. Their sitting in the T20 game is no better.
Batting first and posting an imposing target of 274 in 49.3 overs, the lively Auckland pitch suggested a run feast if the usually aggressive Sri Lanka batting hit top gear.
Finn Allen 51 off 49 with 2 sixers and 5 fours, Daryl Mitchell 47 off 58 balls debutant Rachin Ravindra 49 off 52 with 1 six and 4 fours and Glenn Phillips 39 off 42 balls, laid the platform for New Zealand’s target that was a step too far for the Sri Lanka batters.
Sadly it was not to be, as a procession of lacklustre batters found no answer to New Zealand’s attack which was inexperienced but enough to deliver the ultimate killer blow.
Recovery from here appears to be an uphill task.
