Sri Lanka lose 200th T20I

Monday, 11 November 2024 02:58 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Pathum Nissanka played a lone hand with his 13th T20I fifty

Lockie Ferguson broke the back of the Lankan batting with a hat-trick

New Zealand fight back superbly to level series 1-all

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Wanindu Hasaranga took four wickets, bowling virtually on one leg

DAMBULLA: A New Zealand side without several of their experienced players pulled off a superb 5-run win over a full-strength Sri Lanka side, in the second T20I played at the Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium yesterday, to share the two-match series 1-all.

It was Sri Lanka’s 200th T20 International and their bowlers laid the platform for a series clinching win by dismissing New Zealand for 108, a total that was well within their grasp.

But New Zealand, spearheaded by seamer Lockie Ferguson, who broke the back of the Sri Lankan batting with a hat-trick, excellently supported by spinners skipper Mitchell Santner, Michael Bracewell, and Glenn Phillips, found ways and means of making inroads into the batting to have them all out for 103. It was the third lowest total defended successfully in T20Is and New Zealand deserved every bit of it for the way they fought back.

Only Pathum Nissanka stood tall for Sri Lanka, playing a defiant knock of 52 off 51 balls (6 fours), but with his side requiring seven runs off the last five balls, he holed out to long on, and with that, the chances of victory diminished. Phillips, the man with the golden arm who bowled that crucial final over, snapped up the wickets of Matheesha Pathirana and Maheesh Theekshana off the next three deliveries to give his team a laudable win.

Ferguson became the fifth New Zealand bowler to perform the hat-trick after Jacob Oram, New Zealand’s current bowling coach, Tim Southee (twice), Michael Bracewell, and Matt Henry. He took a wicket off the last ball of his first over (Kusal Perera caught behind), and two wickets with the first two balls of his second (Kamindu Mendis lbw and Charith Asalanka caught behind).

Young wicket-keeper Mitchell Hay, playing in only his second T20I, had an excellent time behind the stumps with six dismissals (5ct, 1 st). Earlier, Sri Lanka, who won the toss and invited New Zealand to bat first, managed to bowl them out in the final over in an almost action repeat of the first T20I on Saturday. If anything, New Zealand’s batting performance was appalling and they never looked set with the bat.

Nuwan Thushara did the damage early on by picking up two wickets off his first seven balls; after that it was all Wanindu Hasaranga. The canny leg-spinner ran through the middle-order and left New Zealand reeling at 52-6. Some handy contributions from Josh Clarkson and Santner saw New Zealand get past the 100-run mark.

Ferguson took the Player of the Match award and Hasaranga, the Player of the Series.

The two teams will play a three-match ODI series commencing at Dambulla on 13 November.