All-round New Zealand brush aside Sri Lanka
Facing a must-win game to keep their semifinal chances in their own hands, New Zealand came up with a clinical performance to thump Sri Lanka by five wickets in Bangalore on Thursday (November 9). The result virtually assures the Black Caps of a semifinal date with India unless Afghanistan or Pakistan win their respective games by an astoundingly high margin. The victory was set up by the bowlers – Trent Boult (2-37) and Mitchell Santner (2-22) leading the charge – and the batters then made a mockery of the target by finishing the chase with more than half the allotted overs left. The target of 172 was never going to trouble New Zealand as long as they didn’t lose early wickets. Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra not only prevented early wickets but also went at breakneck speed in the first powerplay. The duo’s strokeplay showed how good the pitch was for batting and also put into perspective Sri Lanka’s torrid show earlier in the day. Conway started off as the aggressor but it didn’t take Ravindra long to take on the bowling as all the bowlers got the stick. The intent was clear from New Zealand that they wanted to boost the net run rate as much as they possibly could. Conway and Ravindra perished but Daryl Mitchell ensured that the tempo was maintained with his signature high-intent brand of strokeplay. Sri Lanka did manage to get a few wickets towards the end as New Zealand went harder at the bowling but the result was a foregone conclusion. Glenn Phillips struck successive boundaries in the 24th over to finish the formalities and it was an emphatic win for New Zealand across all departments. Sri Lanka’s bowlers can’t be faulted as the damage was done in the first innings where their batters failed to utilize a good batting surface. While the pitch wasn’t as flat as in some of the famous IPL games at this venue, it still gave value for proper strokeplay. New Zealand’s bowlers had the overhead conditions as an advantage and it was perhaps why Kane Williamson opted to bowl at the toss with inclement weather being the obvious main reason. Weathering the new ball storm was all that Sri Lanka needed to do as batting was bound to get easier through the innings. However, Boult along with his new-ball partner Tim Southee made early inroads to have Sri Lanka reeling at 32/3 in the fifth over. Kusal Perera’s aggressive half-century did threaten a Lankan counter punch but he too fell after the landmark as Sri Lanka lost half their side inside the first ten overs. Santner’s frugal spell in the middle overs further denied any scope of a fightback from Kusal Mendis’s side. New Zealand’s bowling and fielding were all on point, putting a squeeze on Sri Lanka’s scoring. It took an 87-ball stand of 43 for the final wicket between Maheesh Theekshana and Dilshan Madushanka to lend some respectability to the total although it was still a very low score. New Zealand were expected to gun it down with ease and they did that with aplomb. Brief scores:
Sri Lanka 171 in 46.4 overs (Kusal Perera 51, Maheesh Theekshana 38*; Trent Boult 3-37, Rachin Ravindra 2-21, Mitchell Santner 2-22, Lockie Ferguson 2-35) lost to New Zealand 172/5 in 23.2 overs (Devon Conway 45, Daryl Mitchell 43, Rachin Ravindra 42; Angelo Mathews 2-29) by 5 wickets
