Twenty20 World Cup 2010- New Zealand wins thriller in T20 WC opener

What a terrific start to twenty20 2010 world cup, New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by two wickets in a low scoring match. Requiring 4 runs to win of last two balls of Malinga over, N.McCullum smashed fifth ball of the 20^th over cleanly over the long-off boundary to seal victory for New Zealand.

The conditions were not easy for the batsmen with the pitch playing slow, supporting spin and the ball keeping low on occasion. Chasing the target of 136 runs for victory, New Zealand got off to disasterous start by losing B.McCullum in the very first over for duck. However a steady partnership between Jesse Ryder (42 runs of 27 balls) and M.Guptill (19 runs of 24 balls) of 62 runs for the second wicket guided New Zealand to a comfortable position.

But as soon as Sri Lanka introduced M.Muralidaran and S.Jayasurya into bowling, runs started to dry out for New Zealand. They played too many dot balls in the middle overs and when run rate started to mount their batsmen tried too many needless shot to get into trouble.

At 96/5 in the 17^th over, game looked in firm control of Sri Lanka, but two lusty blows from big man J.Oram suddenly change the course of the match. He brings down the equation to 20 runs of 12 legal delivereis. C.Kapugedara bowled a perfect Yorker to dismisss the gangerous looking Oram on the very first ball of the 19^th over.

But superb inning from N.McCullum (16 runs of 6 balls) under pressure guided New Zealand to much needed victory.

Earlier Sri Lanka after winning the toss got off to steady start. Riding on the half-century from M.Jayawardne (81 runs of 51 balls) and L.Chandimal (29 runs of 23 balls) they have put 135/6 in their 20 overs on a slow turning track.

Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kumar Sangakkara, who had forgettable IPL campaigns in India, once again struggled to get going as there scorecard suggested in the end. Dilshan scored 3 runs of 19 balls while Sangakara scored 4 runs of 11 balls.

Now with this loss Sri Lanka faces an uphill task of qualifying for the Super 8’s, since they will face Zimbabwe in their next game. Zimbabwe so far won their both warm-up games and that too against the T20 world champions Pakistan and Australia. So it’s going to be intresting battle between Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka on 3^rd May 2010.

N.McCullum was declared Player of the Match for his super bowling, batting and fielding performance.

Match Summary (NZ Won by 2 Wickets)

Sri Lanka – 135/6 in 20 Overs

M.Jayawardne- 81                             L.Chandimal– 29

S.Bond- 4-0-25-2                                N.McCullum– 4-0-17-1

New Zealand– 139/8 in 19.5 Overs

J.Ryder- 42                                        N.McCullum–16*

M.Muralidaran- 4-0-25-2                  S.Jayasurya– 4-0-17-1

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