It was a bright and a sunny afternoon at Eden Park today, much like a subcontinent afternoon as Sri Lanka came to playing the dead rubber with a free mindset knowing that the series was done and dusted in favour of the hosts, hence the apparent mindset was play fearless cricket.
New Zealand rested Jacob Duffy and opted to plat 3 seamers and two spinners with Michael Bracewell given the responsibility of bowling his off spin.
I personally liked the body language of Kusal Mendis as he shared his pleasure during the pre match interview during which he stated they loved the ambience, the weather, and the dimensions of the ground. Hence, I felt this could be his day.
Asalanka won the coin toss and chose to bat with an unchanged side .
Pathum Nissanka showed his repertoire of strokes against the likes of Matt Henry. William O’Brouck and Nathen Smith in smashing them all over the park and got to his 50 in 33 balls before he felt his groin injury which forced him to retire hurt .
Kusal Mendis and Kamindu Mendis batted with great composure, pleasing to the eye, but Kusal threw it away on 54 when he could have made a three figure score. Kamindu, too, was out for 48 . Given the batting conditions, I thought both batters could have made it big.
Charith Asalanka in the ODI series has not disturbed the scorers but certainly upset the apple cart in the middle pace as he was out for a duck.
Janith Liyanage got among the runs making 53 which helped Sri Lanka with a par score of 290 for 8 wickets with the injured Pathum Nissanka coming back to bat but was dismissed for 66 by Mitch Santner.
Matt Henry took 4 for 50 whilst Santner chipped in with 2 for 55.
The target of 291 was achievable based on the strong Kiwi batting line up and the friendly dropped in pitch that looked easy to bat on.
For reasons best known to the black caps, they fell like 9 pins losing wickets at regular intervals and were 56 for 6 wickets at one stage. “The top order is simply not getting any momentum going” Was the comment from the unbiased com box.
Mark Chapman though stood his ground and made a fantastic 82 whilst the rest must still be shell-shocked bowled out for 150 i n good batting conditions, and losing the dead rubber by 140 runs , that did spoil New Zealand’s series win to a great extent.
New Zealand would have envisaged a whitewash, but sadly, it was not the black caps day.
Asitha Fernando 3 for 26, Maheesh Theekshana 3 for 36 and Eshan Malinga 3 for 35 bowled with intent.
Well played Sri Lanka, and thanks to New Zealand for being very competitive by winning both the T 20 and the one day series .
