Sri Lanka still no 1

Royal young men; Ramith Rambukwella 19 for 1 and Kushal J Perera 57 in 37 balls bring it home

A 96- run partnership between fire-brand Kushal Janith Perera and veteran T M Dilshan saw Sri Lanka safely negotiate the T20 number one ranking at the 2nd T20 match vs New Zealand in Pallekele today.

Earlier in the evening, in the very 1st  over,  Nuwan Kulasekara swinging to Hamish Rutherford (3 )had Kumar Sangakkara picking him up behind the stumps which opened the day for the home side who won the toss and decided to bowl anticipating rain and Ducksworth coming into play.

Sri Lanka all out to hold their T20 ‘king’ status, came out full of energy determined to win the encounter and threw all at the Kiwi’s bombarding them with spin bowling of all sorts.  After Kulasekara removed the first wicket in the 2nd over, Angelo Mathews had  Broom  (6) caught by Ajantha Mendis. 

Mendis in his first over, removed Anton Devcich for 30; a freak partnership-catch where it lobbied off Kusal Perera’s hands into Nuwan Kulasekara’s. The third wicket went down at 49 in the 7th over. 

Debutant Ramith Rambukwella came on to bowl his innocuous stop-start action spin in the 4th over and despite going for a few runs initially settled to stemming the rush quite immaculately. The shelling of the opposition with spin continued as T M Dilshan came on to bowl keeping to a definite plan; taking the pace of the ball and mixing it up.  

However,  New  Zealand too kept the pace with  booming drives or heave-overs off and on to keep the runs ticking.  Rambukwella broke Latham in the 10th over when Dilshan hung on to a sharp chance leaving  the score 62 for 4.

Mendis went for a few too many as Luke Ronchi and Collin Munro dug in with a few good overs until Tisara Perera bowled 4 tight deliveries and third man Kulasekara caught Munro slicing him for 17 runs.

Score 93 for 5 in 14 overs.

Ronchi having had a reprieve when  Rambukwella dropped him in the 15th over, together with Nathan MaCullum the Kiwi hero of this series, added momentum to the Kiwi innings to get to 138 for 5.  Sri Lanka had some fortune when McCullum was run out in the last over through a Dilshan- Sangakkara combination, brought about by death-bowling master Lasith Malinga’s  clever mix. Malinga also removed Rob Nicol with a delicious LBW that stemmed the flow at the end with last over yielding 6 runs, a wicket and a run out to curb the Kiwis to 142 for 7 at 20 overs.

Sri Lanka came out to bat with Mahela Jayawardena and T M Dilshan and the Kiwi bowlers immediately hit lengths and got some purchase from the wicket.  Mahela Jayawardena (3) was given out lbw, a ball pitching on leg stump but the opposition’s vociferous appeal playing on the inexperience of umpire Wimalarasiri got them a decision much to the dismay of Jayawardena.

The ‘Sanath Jayasuriya’ mould Kushal Janith Perera, was dropped by Ellis but went on to effect some carnage flicking and timing boundaries at will; while some of his shots  seemed just airy-fairy those that connected were absolutely spectacular,  wristy and innovative. He ended up caught and bowled Nicol for 57 in 37 balls with six fours and two sixes which earned him the man of the match.

You cannot discount the old war horse Dilshan who plodded slowly (by his standards) initially and then broke out to a canter supporting young Perera in a match-winning partnership. Dilshan remained not out on 59 in 49 balls with 8 fours.  Sangakkara who came at the fall of Perera’s wicket remained not out on 20 when Sri Lanka cruised to 143 in 17 overs with just 2 wickets down.