Glenn Phillips outscores Sri Lanka in New Zealand's huge win
Led by Glenn Phillips' second T20I ton and Trent Boult's best bowling figures, New Zealand enlisted one more thumping win to proceed with their unbeaten run in the continuous ICC Men's T20 World Cup. On Saturday, they brought down Sri Lanka by 65 runs at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Basically:
Opting to bat, New Zealand were wrecked from the get-go in their innings, reduced to 15 for 3 in 4 overs. However, Phillips' counter-going after century powered them to 167 for 7. In any case, Sri Lanka never got a sniff of victory in the chase after being shaken right on time by Trent Boult, which had them diminished to 24 for 5 not long after the powerplay. Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Dasun Shanaka put on somewhat of a battle, however testing New Zealand's total was rarely enough.
For what reason were New Zealand struggling early?
Indeed, even as both the skippers were sure that they needed to bat first, Sri Lanka's decision to use ample spin in the powerplay worked wonders. The dangerous Finn Allen was deceived and cleaned up by Maheesh Theekshana in the first over itself, his in-form opening partner, Devon Conway, was scattered by Dhananjaya de Silva 10 balls later. Kane Williamson's struggles went on as he got an edge to a rising delivery from Kasun Rajitha and was gotten by Kusal Mendis.
How did Phillips restore the innings?
There was a difficult situation right off the bat. As a matter of fact, he was even dropped two times through the course of his innings - once when he was batting on 12 and then on 45. While the first one put down by Pathum Nissanka in the seventh over was a clear opportunity, the second in the fourteenth over was dropped by Shanaka while he charged forward.
At the two points, New Zealand's innings desperately required a push. With Daryl Mitchell, who forged a 84-run union for the fourth wicket with his 24-ball 22, battling to find that momentum, Phillips' dropped catch proved costly. The hard-hitting right-hander added 59 runs in 26 balls since the second dropped chance.
The Sri Lankan bowlers excessively utilized the more slow balls and constrained the player, who were struggling to come to terms with the lack of pace, to produce the power in their shots. While they bombed in the majority of their attempts to take care of the balls, Phillips kept finding boundaries at regular intervals to keep New Zealand in the contest.
He started the charge in the fourteenth over itself, when he was dropped, trucking Karunaratne for 14 runs - the most costly of the innings. He proceeded with the attack in the death, which remembered pounding Theekshana for two successive sixes in the seventeenth over.
Might Sri Lanka at some point stop New Zealand's charge from there on?
Not actually. Indeed, even as Wanindu Hasaranaga cleaned up Mitchell in the fifteenth over and other bowlers likewise contributed with the wickets of James Neesham, Phillips and Ish Sodhi later in the innings, nothing stop the flow of runs and the rising scoring rate. Tim Southee smacked a boundary to end New Zealand's innings on 167 for 7.
Were Sri Lanka ever in the chase?
For perhaps the initial four balls of the innings. Off the fifth, Nissanka was caught leg-before by Southee while he attempted to swing at a straight delivery just to have it missed and hit on the pads. The slide never stopped from thereon.
In the following over, bowled by Boult, Kusal Mendis was gotten behind and Dhananjaya slashed a delivery on to his stumps to leave the side reeling at 5 for 3.
A procession of wickets continued from thereon, with Bhanuka Rajapaksa offering the only hope with his counter-attacking play. He cut Lockie Ferguson for a six and then followed it up with a lofted drive over cover for a boundary. He meted out a similarly disdainful approach to Ish Sodhi as well, but with wickets tumbling from the other end, Sri Lanka were always playing catch-up.
Ferguson had the last laugh and ended Rajapaksa's visit in the tenth over when the southpaw miscued a hurl to a rising delivery to the fielder at mid off. Thereafter, a series of soft dismissals followed. Sodhi and Mitchell Santner picked a support each - returning identical figures of 2 for 21 - as Sri Lanka were packaged out in 19.2 overs. Shanaka pursued a fight to no end towards the end with a 32-ball 35, but it was always an effort that was going to in vain, only to delay the inevitable.
Boult dismissed Shanaka in the last ball of his spell to return figures of 4 for 13 - his best and New Zealand's third best in T20 World Cups.
What's the situation and what would be the best next step?
With two wins in three games, and a no result, New Zealand are firmly at the top of the points table. While they firmly remain the favourites to qualify for the semifinals from Group 1, their next contest will be against an English side that's desperate to win. For the Tuesday clash, they will be travelling to Brisbane.
With two losses in three games, it's in a real sense the rain havoced results of different challenges in the group that is keeping Sri Lanka above afloat in the opposition. They will likewise be heading out to Brisbane for the next challenge, where they frantically need to beat Afghanistan at the Gabba on November 1.
Match Summary
New Zealand 167/7 in 20 overs (Glenn Phillips 104, Daryl Mitchell 22; Kasun Rajitha 2-23) beat Sri Lanka 102 in 19.2 overs (Dasun Shanaka 35, Bhanuka Rajapaksa 34; Trent Boult 4-13, Mitchell Santner 2-21) by 65 runs
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