Sri Lanka’s performance review on the New Zealand tour

T20Is:

Chasing New Zealand’s 182 for 4, Sri Lanka fell three short to record their sixth loss in eight matches on the tour. With overs from their frontline bowlers exhausted, New Zealand was forced to turn to Grant Elliott’s gentle seamers to defend 13 runs from the last over in the first T20I against Sri Lanka in Mount Maunganui. He took one wicket – which was followed by a run-out – and conceded only nine runs with his mixture of yorkers and slower balls. Sri Lanka’s chase seemed to have run aground at 42 for 4 at the end of the fifth over, before Milinda Siriwardana and Danushka Gunathilaka resurrected it. Their 40s were ultimately futile.

Sri Lanka rifled through their attack at the start, trying four different bowlers in the first four overs, but each failed to contain Martin Guptill. At the end of the fourth over New Zealand were 49 for 0 and Guptill made 32 off 13. The leg spin of Jeffrey Vandersay was particularly effective in the middle period – his three-over spell costing only 18. Kulasekara’s 19th over cost only five runs and he took a wicket. He finished with Sri Lanka’s best figures of 2 for 26, and later threatened to play a winning hand with the bat, but was one of Elliott’s victims in the final over, having hit 14 from 10.

An abject Sri Lankan collapse full of witless batting, a clinical performance by New Zealand’s seamers, and a blazing start from Guptill, all featured in Sri Lanka’s final heavy defeat of the tour. Colin Munro 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’s 142 for 8 on a flat Eden Park track, and on one of the smallest grounds in the world, was gunned down with nine wickets and ten full overs to spare.

New Zealand put zippy balls just short of a length – a clear bowling plan, given the ground’s odd dimensions – and the visitors just failed to adapt. Grant Elliott was the most accurate bowler, and took 4 for 22 from his full quota, but so intent did Sri Lanka’s batsmen seem on holing out, almost anyone could have taken those wickets.

Angelo Mathews played a familiar lone hand for his team. His 81 not out from 49 balls comprised well over half of the team’s score. He was the only batsman to attempt to build an innings, instead of bash one. Danushka Gunathilaka aimed an ungainly heave across the line soon that brought his downfall as the stumps were uprooted.

Dilshan played his own ugly innings, mistiming, top-edging slogs, and missing attempted scoops over the shoulder. He was out reverse-sweeping for 28 from 26 balls. Dinesh Chandimal and Shehan Jayasuriya were caught attempting expansive strokes. Mathews might have expected a little help for rebuilding from Kithuruwan Vithanage and Thisara. They were both caught at the straight boundary for single figure scores, off Elliott’s bowling.