1st T20i
New Zealand 182/4 (20/20 ov)
Sri Lanka 179/9 (20/20 ov)
New Zealand won by 3 runs
With overs from their frontline bowlers exhausted, New Zealand were forced to turn to Grant Elliott's gentle seamers to defend 13 runs from the last over in the first T20I against Sri Lanka in Mount Maunganui. Elliott proved himself as nerveless with ball in hand, as he had been with the bat during last year's World Cup. He took one wicket - which was followed by a run-out - and conceded only nine runs with his mixture of yorkers and slower balls. Chasing New Zealand's 182 for 4, Sri Lanka fell three short to record their sixth loss in eight matches this tour.
The road to this tight triumph had first been paved by Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson, who struck rapid half-centuries in a 101-run opening stand. Colin Munro, and then Ross Taylor hit brief but explosive innings, before New Zealand's quicks gave their side an even better start with the ball than the one with the bat. Sri Lanka's chase seemed to have run aground at 42 for 4 at the end of the fifth over, before Milinda Siriwardana and Danushka Gunathilaka resurrected it. Their 40s were ultimately futile. Matt Henry and Trent Boult took three wickets apiece before Elliott's over extinguished the resurgence.
Boult was first to strike, finding success with that line outside leg stump that has been strangely productive for New Zealand all through the tour. Tillakaratne Dilshan edged the ball behind his legs to the wicketkeeper first ball, before Shehan Jayasuriya fell in similar fashion in Boult's next over.
Took a couple of balls to get the nerves down - Munro
Calming words from Kane Williamson, and a gentle start at the crease, helped Colin Munro make an important middle-order contribution, the batsman said. Munro went on to make 36 from 26, with two sixes and two fours, but did not hit a boundary in his first three overs at the crease.
"It took a couple of balls to get the nerves down, and once I was away I felt pretty good," Munro said. "It was a tough period to go in, after the start that Guppy and Kano got - do I keep going or give myself a little bit of a chance to get in? I spoke to Kane and he said, 'Give yourself a few balls to get in.' Once I got in, I felt I could make hay."
Munro, who is reputed to be among the biggest hitters in New Zealand's domestic set-up, said good bowling from Sri Lanka also helped restrain him at the start of his innings.
"It's a big area of my game I've worked on over that last six to twelve months; that I can catch up at the death if I'm still there," he said. "It was a hard surface to get start on and Sri Lanka bowled really well after the Guptill wicket."
At the other end, Matt Henry had Dinesh Chandimal top-edging a heave across the line, and Angelo Mathews slapping uppishly to cover. Both bowlers would return to strike a further vital blow apiece in the final overs. Boult had Siriwardana caught for a typically shrewd 42 from 31 balls, at fine leg, in the 17th over. Henry had Perera holing out to long on for 28 from 19 balls. Boult's 3 for 21 earned him the Man-of-the-Match award, with Henry having been more than twice as expensive.
Ish Sodhi also played a role, delivering four overs for 33 and taking the scalp of Gunathilaka, who top-scored with 46 from 29 balls. Many of those runs had come down the ground, including two long sixes - one of which exceeded 100 metres.
Earlier, Guptill set New Zealand's innings off apace, when he cut the second ball of the day for four, then smoked one through the covers, and thumped another into the bank beyond deep midwicket to reap 14 from the first over. Sri Lanka rifled through their attack at the start, trying four different bowlers in the first four overs, but each failed to remain within the miniscule margin of error for Guptill. At the end of the fourth over New Zealand were 49 for 0. Guptill was 32 off 13.
Sri Lanka scraped through the remainder of the Powerplay by largely keeping Kane Williamson on strike, but they did quiet Guptill when the field relaxed. The leg spin of Jeffrey Vandersay was particularly effective in the middle period - his three-over spell costing only 18.
Despite this relative deceleration, New Zealand had gained enough ground in the Powerplay to cross 100 in the 11th over. Williamson was busy after Guptill had bruised Sri Lanka, slinking about the crease to find smart, square boundaries - though he was also fortunate that the inside edge that grazed his off stump in the eighth over did not dislodge the bails.
Guptill moved to fifty with a high strike over the long-on boundary, but was run out to a direct hit next over, when Williamson called him through for a tight single. Williamson himself departed after a few quieter overs, when he holed out to deep midwicket off Nuwan Kulasekara.
Vandersay removed Corey Anderson in his last over, and should have also had Munro, had the deep point fielder, Jayasuriya, held on to a straightforward catch. He and Kulasekara emerged from the death overs with credit, as Munro and Taylor struck big blows. Kulasekara's 19th over cost only five runs and he took a wicket. He finished with Sri Lanka's best figures of 2 for 26, and later threatened to play a winning hand with the bat, but was one of Elliott's victims in the final over, having hit 14 from 10.
2nd T20i
Sri Lanka 142/8 (20/20 ov)
New Zealand 147/1 (10/20 ov)
New Zealand won by 9 wickets (with 60 balls remaining)
An abject Sri Lanka collapse full of witless batting, a clinical performance by New Zealand's seamers, and a fast start from Martin Guptill, all featured in Sri Lanka's final heavy defeat of the tour. Their embarrassment was enhanced a little here for having come in front of an Auckland crowd of over 17,000, and by Colin Munro, who bludgeoned the second-fastest half-century in T20s to close out a match that had never really been in doubt for New Zealand. He was unbeaten on 50 from 14 balls, having hit seven sixes and a four. Sri Lanka's 142 for 8 on a flat track, and on one of the smallest grounds in the world, was gunned down with nine wickets and ten full overs to spare.
Seduced by the short boundaries, Sri Lanka's batsmen aimed slog after slog at the straight fence, and fell predictably, and in quick succession. New Zealand put zippy balls just short of a length - a clear bowling plan, given the ground's odd dimensions - and the visitors just failed to adapt. Grant Elliott was the most accurate bowler, and took 4 for 22 from his full quota, but so intent did Sri Lanka's batsmen seem on holing out, almost anyone could have taken those wickets.
Angelo Mathews played a familiar lone hand, sporting a familiar look of frustration at his teammates' incompetence. His 81 not out from 49 balls comprised well over half of Sri Lanka's score. He was the only batsman to attempt to build an innings, instead of bash one.
It's not often that a batsman hitting 63 from 25 balls in a modest T20 chase will be outshone, but a rapid Guptill was made to look almost pedestrian by Munro. Having arrived at 89 for 1 in the seventh over, Munro blasted his second ball, off Thisara Perera, into the stands beyond wide long on, then savaged the legspin of Vandersay. Kane Williamson gave Munro the strike in the first ball of the eighth over, and he sent the ball hurtling over the deep midwicket boundary three times in four balls. That over cost 27. Having already been at the end of Guptill's brutality, Vandersay had earlier bowled an over that conceded 20. His two overs went for 41. None of Sri Lanka's four bowlers had an economy rate of less than 11.
Munro wrapped up the victory with a four and two more sixes in Dushmantha Chameera's third over. He reached fifty and moved New Zealand to their target with his last six, over deep midwicket. His 14-ball half-century is only slower than Yuvraj Singh's 12-ball fifty against England, in the 2007 World T20.
Sri Lanka's spectacular nosedive began in the second over. Danushka Gunathilaka had earlier made room to scythe Adam Milne through the offside, but aimed an ungainly heave across the line soon after. The ball passed some distance from the bat and splayed his stumps.
At the other end, Dilshan was playing his own ugly innings, mistiming and top-edging slogs, and missing attempted scoops over the shoulder. But he survived longer than two incoming batsmen, which is to say, until the 10th over. Before Dilshan was out reverse-sweeping, for 28 from 26 balls, Dinesh Chandimal and Shehan Jayasuriya had both been caught attempting expansive strokes for 2 and 3 respectively.
Milinda Siriwardana - who has usually been an intelligent reprieve from Sri Lanka's batting madness this tour - could not resist a slog himself as he was out first ball. He was caught just outside the circle at long on. With the score at 66 for 5 in the 11th over, Mathews might have expected a little help for rebuilding from Kithuruwan Vithanage and Thisara. They were both caught at the straight boundary for single figure scores, off Elliott's bowling.
Mathews had moved his innings into gear with two straight sixes off the spin of Mitchell Santner, but largely respected the quicks until the back end of the innings. Even then, he picked the hittable deliveries intelligently. He launched Trent Boult down the ground in the 15th over, then when Boult return to close out the innings, Mathews made room and slapped him through the offside twice. By far the largest partnership of the innings was Mathews' 39-run stand with no. 10 batsman Vandersay.
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