Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson each made half-centuries in a 101-run opening partnership to help New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by three runs in the first Twenty20 international between the teams yesterday.
Guptill scored 58 from 34 balls to give New Zealand the high-tempo start they needed after Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bowl first. Williamson supported him, with 53 from 42 balls, to lead New Zealand to 182-4.
In reply, Danushka Gunathilaka made 46 and Milinda Siriwardana 42 to help Sri Lanka keep things close into the final over. However, Grant Elliott held his nerve and bowled a steady last over that saw Sri Lanka lose two wickets and fall just short at 179-9.
Photo: AFP
Sri Lanka, the world’s top-ranked Twenty20 team, seemed out of the match when they slumped to 42-4 in the fifth over after losing Tillakaratne Dilshan (0), Dinesh Chandimal (7), Shehan Jayasuriya (4) and Angelo Mathews (4) in quick succession. Gunathilaka and Siriwardana battled back to help the visitors slowly creep into contention, needing just 44 runs in the last five overs to win, with four wickets in hand.
Siriwardana was then dismissed in the 17th over when Sri Lanka were 153-7, leaving it up to Chamara Kapugedera and Nuwan Kulasekara to maintain the chase.
With Sri Lanka needing 19 runs from the final 12 balls, Williamson had used up all of his frontline bowlers and was forced to turn to Elliott, the star of New Zealand’s successful campaign at last year’s Cricket World Cup.
After allowing only a two and a leg bye off his first two balls, Elliott dismissed Kulasekara and then squeezed Kapugedera, who was run out next ball, to help New Zealand clinch a tight win.
“I thought, at the halfway stage, we had a good total on the board on a used wicket,” Williamson said. “Credit to Sri Lanka for the way they came out and kept coming at us.”
“We took those early wickets that we were always after to try to stem the rate, but they certainly kept up with it and they showed why they are the No. 1 team in the world,” he added.
Guptill continued his outstanding form for New Zealand with his seventh half-century in Twenty20 internationals. He rushed to 32 from only 11 balls, but was then constrained by Sri Lanka’s slower bowlers and found scoring hard to come by.
Still, he had four fours and four sixes from 34 deliveries before being run out by a direct hit from Nuwan Kapugedera.
Williamson had his third Twenty20 half-century before being dismissed as the home side briefly stumbled, slipping from 101-1 to 135-3.
“We had a great opportunity to win this game,” Chandimal said of the visitors’ effort. “When you bowl to Martin [Guptill], you have to stick to the plan because he is in good form, and we lost some early wickets when we batted, so that was the turning point in the game.”
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