Dilshan and Mathews steer Sri Lanka in third ODI

A powerful century by opener TM Dilshan guided Sri Lanka to a comfortable 7-wicket win against New Zealand in the third ODI match played at Pallekele last night.

 Dilshan cracked an unbeaten 102 off 95 balls as he carried the bat to steer Sri Lanka 2-0 in the five-match ODI series. Playing his 250th ODI game, it was Dilshan’s first century against the New Zealand passing the 100 mark with a six.

 He hit 12 fours and pulled one over the ropes to reach his century in style while sharing an unbroken partnership of 127 runs for the fourth wicket which saw the home team reach their target with 11 balls to spare.

 Dilshan’s known overshadowed New Zealand opener BJ Walting’s epic knock came earlier in the game.

Mathews made an unbeaten 54 off 47 balls with seven boundaries after he joined in with Dilshan to put the Sri Lankan innings which was down at 73-3.

Sri Lanka was set to chase 197 runs in 33 overs, a revised target through the Duckworth/Lewis method after New Zealand posted 188-6 with a couple of rain interruptions prompted the game to a 33-overs per-side affair.

Opener BJ Watling hammered an unbeaten 96 off 88 balls with 12 boundaries while sharing an unbroken partnership of 71 runs for the seventh wicket with Nathan McCullum who hit 22 not out off 18 balls with two sixes.

Jeewan Mendis picked two wickets while Angelo Mathews, Lasith Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara claimed a wicket each.

Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to field.

In post match comments Sri Lanka Captain Mahela Jayawardena said: “To be fair the conditions were suited to us with the dew. Even our bowlers struggled to control things after the rain. Dilshan showed lot of maturity and guided Angelo.We needed a good partnership after the three wickets. I was not too worried. We are trying to give Angelo more opportunities to bat. He’s taken more responsibility now at No 5. Having all these allrounders gives us balance.”

Losing Captain Ross Taylor said: “Dilshan took the game away. We were always in the game. Dew made it tough for the bowlers. We went a bit too wide and a bit too short. I am becoming a very good forecaster here in Sri Lanka and I am sure there will be rain in Hambantota as well.”

Man of the Match Dilshan said: “Soon after the toss, I had some pain in the back. When I was batting I was about 75%. There was some problem while fielding. First few overs were bit difficult after that the ball was wet, four fielders outside the circle, we capitalised on that. Bit easy with the four fielders in the middle overs.”

Scores:

New Zealand 188 for 6 wickets (33) (BJ Watling 96n.o, James Franklin 26, Nathan McCullum 22n.o, Jeewan Mendis 2/34)

Sri Lanka 200 for 3 wickets (31.1) (TM Dilshan 102n.o, Angelo Mathews 54n.o.)