Here’s Player of the Match, Rachin Ravindra, for his all-round display! He says: “It’s always pleasing to take a win like that. Amazing, specially at their home, awesome performance. I guess understanding that slower was better, and a few stats were put out there… Under 85ks. Santner is obviously a master at that craft, so we decided slower is the plan.”
10.30pm What a bowling defense: this sends a message out to the rest of the teams still alive in this competition. Rachin Ravindra’s 4 for 27 was just the icing on the cake after Matt Henry ripped out Nissanka first ball of this chase. The going only got worse from there, to be honest, and Sri Lanka never looked likely to chase this down. They’ll have to go back to the drawing board and reconstruct this T20 eleven, you’d think. New Zealand, meanwhile, wear smiles on their faces as they shake hands with each other and the opposition.
Phillips to Chameera, 1 run, Chameera ventures down the ground, mishits this ball outside off and spinning back into him. The ball dribbles away to cow corner and the New Zealand players heave a sigh of relief. They were in trouble for a while at the start of this match, but they’ve sealed a crucial 61-run win. Sri Lanka, of course, are out of the World Cup with this loss
