It was a gloomy day at the Saxton Oval in Nelson, a small venue in New Zealand . Hence, play was delayed by approximately half an hour.
The cloud cover , a green top , is what New Zealand offered Sri Lanka for the dead rubber , but they anticipated a white wash by playing the same team that won them the first two games.
Sri Lanka made 2 changes by benching Matheesha Pathirana and Kamindu Mendis, which was a wise move. Kamindu was replaced by Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Pathirana by Chamindu Wickramasinghe.
New Zealand had no hesitation in opting to bowl first , but their bowling was nowhere near their best as the Sri Lankan batters feasted on some short length deliveries, which they cartered for 22 hits to the rope and 11 sixes which is a rare performance by Sri Lanka because they do not have pinch hitters or boundry clearing players like New Zealand, Australia, West Indies , England, Pakistan. South Africa or even to the mussel power of India or Pakistan.
Kusak Janith Perera came at number 3 with a different mindset. The guts and power of his present team coach cum childhood hero Sanath Jayasuriya and made his mentor proud as he slammed and banked the Kuwi bowling to all parts of the park for his debut T 20 century of 101 runs in 46 deliveries.
Can Sri Lanka expect a better gift than this for the start of the New Year?
He made 101 runs in 46 deliveries, stiched a partnership of 100 runs for the 4th wicket with Charith Asalanka, his skipper, who made 46 and helped his team to acunalate 218 runs for 5 wickets at a venue that boasts of 184 as the average score.
Jacob Duffy was the only bowler who was spared he took 1 for 30 , whilst the rest were either bowling too short or a length that was with the Sri Lankan batters hitting arch.
219 as a target, be it on any venue is no mean task. Credit must be given to the Kiwis they fell short by 7 runs.
Rachindra Ravindra 69 , Tim Robinson 35 , Darryl Mitchell 35 nearly took the home team towards the dwilight zone , in fact, they were well on target, but the 3 wickets they gifted to part time bowler Charith Asalanka cost them the game.
For Sri Lanka Charith Asalanka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Binura Fernando, and Nuwan Thushara had scalps on their wickets column but Theekshana had another bad day wicketless and bowling quicker deliveries and sliders to the leg side more often than not.
Credit to New Zealand and Sri Lanka for entertaining the big ground support that came in their numbers to support the dead rubber.