Sri Lanka’s performance review on the New Zealand tour

Witless batting, a clinical performance by New Zealand’s fast bowlers and a fast start from Martin Guptill featured in Sri Lanka’s final heavy defeat of the tour. Their embarrassment was enhanced a little by Colin Munro, who bludgeoned the second-fastest half-century in T20Is to close out a match that had never really been in doubt for New Zealand. Sri Lanka has been knocked off their top spot in the ICC T20I rankings as they failed to win a single game in the series. Here is a review of Sri Lanka’s performance on this tour to the picturesque country.

Tests:

Loose bowling on day one and cautious batting on days two and three paved Sri Lanka’s path to defeat said Angelo Mathews, after the 1st Test in Dunedin. Sri Lanka had let New Zealand advance at 4.48 runs and over in the first innings, before batting at 2.50 themselves. Overall, Sri Lanka batted for 50.4 overs more than New Zealand, yet lost by 122 runs. Each of New Zealand’s batsmen who crossed 25 batted at a strike rate of at least 66, Sri Lanka’s half-centurions struck at less than 45. New Zealand hit 64 boundaries in the 96.1 overs they faced. Sri Lanka struck half that amount from 117.1 overs.

The three frontline seamers, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep and Dushmantha Chameera, went for more than four runs an over in the first innings, where only Rangana Herath maintained an economy rate of less than three. After the home side scored 431 at about 4.5 runs per over, a solid 84 from Dimuth Karunaratne led the reply but it fell largely short, despite Dinesh Chandimal’s vigil-like 83, to hand over a 137-run lead.

Chasing a target of 405, Sri Lanka held fort before yielding, the floodgates being opened by Neil Wagner. Half-centurion Chandimal and opener Kusal Mendis impressed with their gutsy batting but the Southee-Boult duo shared 5 wickets to ensure a 122-run win for the home team. Udara Jayasundera had a forgettable debut as he managed only scores of 1 and 3 from the two innings.

Mathews had described the second-innings collapse on day three as a “mockery,” after Sri Lanka went on to lose the Hamilton Test by five wickets. His team had a lead of 126 with all second-innings wickets intact but lost 10 wickets for 62 inside a 14-over period either side of lunch on day three to give the hosts a target of 189 which they achieved after losing 5 wickets. With the ball, Dushmantha Chameera had a match to remember. He had been particularly effective for Sri Lanka with the bouncer, picking up his first five-wicket haul in the first innings, and taking 9 for 115 in the match.

In the first innings, all of Sri Lanka’s recognized batsmen got starts but failed to convert those to into a substantial score barring Matthews (77) and Milinda Siriwardana (62). In the second innings, only 3 batsmen registered double digits- Karunaratne (27), Kusal Mendis (46) and Siriwardana (26). The short ball was used brilliantly by the home team to rattle the islanders. Two batsmen were dismissed after gloving bouncers behind the wicket, as they attempted to fend balls away.

Mathews and Kusal Mendis were caught hooking, Milinda Siriwardana was out playing the pull shot, Dinesh Chandimal was caught flicking off his hips to leg gully, and Kithuruwan Vithanage carved a short and wide delivery to third-man. Sri Lanka will need to improve their handling of the short ball if the young team is to win overseas Tests.