Sri Lanka crush Black Caps to reach semi-finals
New Zealand's Martin Guptill (43) is bowled by Sanath Jayasuriya
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Tuesday, 16, Jun 2009 10:53
Ajantha Mendis took three wickets as Sri Lanka comfortably beat New Zealand in the Super Eights to qualify for the semi-finals of the World Twenty20, writes inthenews.co.uk's Alistair Potter at Trent Bridge.
The medium-pacer was in devastating form as he took the wickets of Ross Taylor, Scott Styris and Peter McGlashan in bowling out the Black Caps for just 110 after Kumar Sangakkara's men had made 158-6 off their 20 overs.
Opener Tilikaratne Dilshan (48 off 37 balls) and Mahela Jayawardene (41 off 29) top-scored for the victors, who now progress to the last four at their opponents' expense.
Sri Lanka made good progress with the bat, despite losing wickets at regular intervals, and scored at a good rate throughout.
The Asian side were particularly prolific off the bowling of Kyle Mills, who returned disappointing figures of 1-41 from his four overs.
With Dilshan, Jayawardene and Sangakkara all looking in good form, Sri Lanka attempted to push on in the middle overs of their innings.
But their steady scoring was continually halted by wickets for New Zealand, particularly the loss of opener Dilshan who was caught by Brendan McCullum off Daniel Vettori.
However, Jayawardene's trademark strokeplay pushed the score past 150 to a reasonable target.
New Zealand started well and looked on top in the early stages, especially after sending spinner Sanath Jayasuriya's first over - the second of the innings - for 20 runs.
But things turned sour after the dismissals of Brendan McCullum and Aaron Redmond left them on 39-2 and the scoring rate began to dip alarmingly, creating pressure on the batsmen.
And that pressure soon told as the Sri Lankans - and in particular Mendis - started taking regular wickets.
The all-rounder removed Styris and Taylor in the same over before later taking over McGlashan.
Martin Guptill (43) looked like the only man capable of resisting the Sri Lankan charge, so when he lost his head and floated a high ball straight down the throat of Mathews in the deep his side were on the ropes.
And so it proved as the bowlers cleaned up the final four wickets in double-quick time, the last coming from a superb long-range run out from captain Dilshan, to bowl out the Black Caps for just 110 in 17 overs and seal their last-four place.