Tillakaratne Dilshan smashed his 19th ODI ton to help Sri Lanka secure a comfortable six-wicket win over New Zealand and level the series 1-1 in at Hamilton on Thursday.
All-round brilliant Dilshan’s exquisite ton outclassed McCullum’s powering century as Sri Lanka finally played to their strengths and manufactured a victory during this tour on New Zealand soil. Four run-outs stifled New Zealand innings to 248 after McCullum bashed 117. Sri Lanka batting unit easily saw through the target in a well-calculated chase led by Dilshan’s 116. Angelo Mathews complemented the whole team during the post-match presentation, “Pretty pleasing with the way the boys went about things and it was a clinical performance by the whole team.”
Brendon McCullum opted to bat first on a batting-friendly surface in this day/night encounter as both teams brought back their two main left-arm spin heroes, Daniel Vettori and Rangana Herath into the playing XI during.
The Kiwis started off ferociously as Brendon kept on peppering the Lankan seamers yet Nuwan Kulasekara removed Martin Guptil early as he holed out Mathews at mid-off for 10. McCullum continued his purple patch superbly as he took advantage of the short boundaries at Seddon Park to great effect. Lankan spinners bowled according to the plan of slowing down the Black Caps captain yet he raced to his 5th ODI ton in 88 balls.
McCullum looked comfortable all throughout his innings which had 12 fours and 5 sixes until he fell to Jeewan Mendis for 117 as the scores read 158 for 3. Chaotic running between the wickets sapped down the momentum of the New Zealand innings as the hosts lost four of their middle-order batters due to run-outs and impressive Lankan fielding. Daniel Vettori was the first to be dismissed run-out as birthday boy Jeewan Mendis threw a brilliant flat throw to Sanga and the Kiwi legend took the long walk back.
Ross Taylor miscued a sweep shot off Herath to end his miserable knock of 34 and two balls later, Luke Ronchi was run-out without even facing a ball. Corey Anderson and Nathan McCullum were the next two victims of the Kiwi run-out misery as disaster struck Hamilton. The Lankan spin quadrant bowled 37 overs together to choke down the hosts batting lineup. New Zealand tail managed to drag the score to 248 after losing five of their wickets to only 36 runs during the middle stages of the innings. Another key feature of the downfall of the New Zealand innings was the batting Powerplay which only gave them 15 runs yet lost 3 scalps.
Sri Lanka started off positively in chase of 249. Both openers, Dimuth and Dilshan batted methodically against the Kiwi pacers who clocked up 150kmphs at times. The straight boundaries were short in this particular grounds and both players played few astonishing straight drives to put up a solid foundation. They accumulated 49 runs off customary strokes in the first 10 overs.
Dimuth was trapped LBW by Nathan McCullum in the 13th over for 21 after he looked promising with his stroke play. Kumar Sangakkara joined Dilshan and they simply proved their class producing a 52-run partnership for the 2nd wicket. Sangakkara played three glorious straight sixes in his stylish knock of 38 before he holed out the deep square leg fielder attempting an expansive hook shot off Adam Milne.
Man of the Match, Dilshan continued to build his innings scoring glorious drives and pulls while his main intention of scoring singles was masterful. Mahela Jayawardene used his experience to start off excitingly yet fell for 28 due to a loose late cut which was snapped by Ross Taylor at third slip off Matt Henry. Both right-handers put up 47 runs for the 3rd wicket.
Skipper Angelo Mathews continued to play the role of controlling the innings in the middle as he and Dilshan got the team away from any danger in one of the superb batting performances recently in overseas conditions by the Lankan Lions. The visitors were always in control during the chase and Mathews stayed till the end to score the winning runs through a boundary. He remained unbeaten on 39 after Dilshan was out-bounced by Matt Henry in the 46th over.
Both teams will now travel to Auckland for the 3rd ODI scheduled on 17th January.
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