Published: Jan 09, 2016, 07:26 PM (IST)
Edited: Jan 09, 2016, 07:41 PM (IST)
New Zealand take on Sri Lanka in the second Twenty20 International (T20I) at Eden Park, Auckland on Sunday. Sri Lanka gave an excellent fight in the first game and narrowly lost the match by 3 runs. Martin Guptill carried on his brilliant form from the One-Day International (ODI) series and scored an excellent half-century in the first game. His new opening partner Kane Williamson too played extremely well and ended up with 53. New Zealand middle-order carried on the opener’s good work and put up a formidable total on the board. New Zealand’s initial onslaught was curtailed by some excellent bowling from Nuwan Kulasekara, who finished with figures of 2 for 26 in his four overs. Full Scorecard: New Zealand vs Sri Lanka 2015-16, 2nd T20I at Auckland
Spinners Shehan Jayasuriya and Jeffrey Vandersay also bowled some quite overs in between to help Sri Lanka’s cause. The visitors kept losing wickets at regular intervals and the burden of getting the required runs fell on the lower middle-order. To their credit, they performed incredibly well, however they eventually fell short.
Sri Lanka will need the top-order, especially Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews to fire in the second match, if Sri Lanka are to get a good total on the board. Start at the top of the innings will be crucial for them, although Danushka Gunathilaka’s 46 on debut was perhaps the only saving grace for them. As far as the New Zealand bowling is concerned, Trent Boult was in top form and made early inroads into Sri Lanka’s batting. He will look to do the same although he might need some help from bowlers like Matt Henry and Mitchell McClenaghan, who went for plenty in the first match. Boult’s figures of 3 for 21 was crucial in New Zealand winning the match. READ: Martin Guptill, Trent Boult shine as New Zealand clinch victory against Sri Lanka in 1st T20I at Mount Maunganui
Sri Lanka, who already having lost the Test and ODI series, will look to redeem themselves in this game and level the series. They did put up some fight in the first match and the same attitude in this match will serve them well. Sri Lanka may look to make a change in the bowling department by getting in either Dushmantha Chameera or Isuru Udana for one of the seam bowlers. Chameera showed sparks of good performances in the Test series and might be a good addition to the side.
New Zealand on the other hand do not need to change their winning combination, but they may bring in Mitchell Santner in place of Ish Sodhi. Santner’s all-round abilities may help New Zealand get one or two crucial runs in addition to some useful runs. READ: Martin Guptill: Batting prowess still to reach its full fruition?
This game is more of an importance for Sri Lanka as a loss will see them lose their No. 1 ranking in T20Is, which they have held onto since 2012.
Squads:
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (c), Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Grant Elliott, Martin Guptill, Mitchell McClenaghan, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, Luke Ronchi (wk), Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor.
Sri Lanka: Dinesh Chandimal (c & wk), Dushmantha Chameera, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Danushka Gunathilaka, Shehan Jayasuriya, Chamara Kapugedera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Suranga Lakmal, Angelo Mathews, Thisara Perera, Sachithra Senanayake, Milinda Siriwardana, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay, Kithuruwan Vithanage.
TIME: 02.00 GMT| 07.30 IST| 15.00 Local
(Pramod Ananth is a reporter at CricketCountry. He has represented Karnataka table tennis under-15, and is a hardcore supporter of Liverpool FC. His Twitter handle is @pramz)
