CWC2023: New Zealand virtually assured of semis berth after rapid win over Sri Lanka

 

New Zealand are now virtually assured of a semi final berth after they raced to a 5 wicket win over Sri Lanka .

Consecutive wins in the first four matches. Then next four matches were consecutive defeats.  At the end of the league stage, they again won by 5 wickets against Sri Lanka.  Thursday's win is crucial for New Zealand.  The win by 22 yards in Bengaluru kept the Kiwis' hopes of a World Cup semi-final alive.  Batting first, Sri Lanka scored 171 runs on this day.  In response, New Zealand scored 172 runs for 5 wickets in 23.2 overs.

 The three semi-final teams are decided.  The fight is on for fourth place.  New Zealand, Pakistan and Afghanistan are in the running.  Kane Williamson went a long way with a win against Sri Lanka on Thursday.  They made Pakistan's  work very difficult.

 New Zealand had to win this day in Bangalore to go to the semi-finals. They would have had to win by a big margin to retain their net run rate advantage.  They did exactly that against Sri Lanka.  Kushal Mendis' team fought hard but could not become a thorn in New Zealand's path.

 Williamson won the toss and decided to field first.  Trent Boult, Team Southee did not disappoint the captain.  Apart from opener Kushal Perera, none of the Sri Lankan batsmen could deliver the fight to the opposition camp.  Perera scored a breezy 51 runs off 28 balls and hit 9 fours and 2 sixes. He really looked dangerous for a while after his catch was dropped early.   He also set a new precedent in this World Cup by scoring a fifty off 22 balls.  Perera has surpassed Travis Head to become the fastest fifty holder in the competition.  Apart from Parera, Mahish Thikshana's unbeaten 38 were crucial runs for Sri Lanka.  The rest of the batting completely flopped .  Pathum Nishanka (2), Mendis (6), Sadira Samarawickrama (1), Charith Ashalanka (8), Angelo Mathews (16), Dhananjay de Silva (19) or Chamika Karunaratne (6) could not give the team confidence with the bat as a combination of good New Zealand bowling & poor strokeplay led to the Sri Lankan demise .

In front of New Zealand's bowling attack, the Sri Lankan batsmen were practically disoriented in Bangalore's 22 yards.  Trent Boult took 3 wickets for 37 runs.  2 wickets for 21 runs was taken by Rachin Ravindra.  Mitchell Santner took 2 wickets for 22 runs.  2 wickets for 35 runs were taken by Lockie Ferguson.

 New Zealand got off to blistering start with a target of 172 runs to win.  Rachin and Devon Conway put on 86 runs for the first wicket.  Conway scored 45 runs off 42 balls.  He hit 9 fours.  Rachin's 42-run innings came from 34 balls.  3 fours and a six came from his bat.  Daryl Mitchell also scored a hard hitting  43 runs off 31 balls.  He hit 5 fours and 2 sixes and enthralled the crowd .  However, Williamson's innings ended in a flurry.  Williamson (14) and  Mark Chapman (7) went cheaply with latter runout .  In the end, Glenn Phillips (17) and Tom Latham (2) gave the team a much-desired victory.

 Mathews is the hero of creating instability in the New Zealand innings.  He is Sri Lanka's most successful bowler.  The experienced all-rounder took 2 wickets with 29 runs.  Theeksana took 1 wicket for 43 runs.  1 wicket with 20 runs was taken by Dushmant Chameera. Boult for his 3 wickets was the player of the match . 

Sri Lanka  thus completed their matches for the world cup and they had a disappointing campaign.  There was a lot of inconsisteny in their performances . However they have some promising players in Nissanka , Samaravikrama & Madhusanka who should mature into top class cricketers .

As for New Zealand, they are likely to face India in the semi final , a replay of 2019 semis