Lankans demolish Kiwis

There was only one difference between Sri Lanka and New Zealand, in the first of the third round ODI games of the ongoing triseries.

Length.

On a pitch with a bit of steam in it thanks to overnight rain -- which, incidentally, shortened the match to 36 overs apiece -- the Kiwis bowled the sort of three quarter length they had used throughout the earlier phase of the tournament.

That length, employed by the Kiwi bits and pieces all rounders, worked on the slower pitches seen thus far, with the ball not coming on to the bat -- a factor that inhibited strokeplay. Here, though, the moisture had created bouncier conditions, and adhering to the same three quarter length meant merely that the ball sat up and asked to be hit.

In contrast, the Lankan seamers pitched it right up, stepping up their pace and using shoulder to extract greater bounce. And a scorecard of 19/5 at the end of 8 overs told as much of the story of the game as needs telling.

Batting first -- thanks to an insertion by Stephen Fleming after winning the toss -- in the rain-shortened game, the Sri Lankans were powered off the blocks by skipper Sanath Jayasuriya, batting with his customary disregard for the proprieties as he repeatedly got under the ball and lifted up and over. A flick at an away-seamer on his pads however caused a miscue, the seam movement ensuring that the batsman got neither elevation nor placement on the shot, for Tuffey to hold well at backward square and give Lanka its first setback. Jayasuriya had made 20 off 22 balls in a Lankan total of 32/1 in the 6th over.

The Lankans were intent on piling it up, and Kaluwitharana yet again came in at number three with this goal in mind. The dimunitive keeper-batsman seemed to be stroking smoothly, relishing the nice 'carry' on the ball off the deck, when a brilliant run out ended his innings. Kaluwitharana drove on the up, Jacob Oram at point pulled off a diving stop and even before he returned to terra firma, had underarmed a powerful throw to the bowler, Harris, to catch Kalu two yards short of his ground.

Avishka Gunawardene continued his run of patchy form. The opener, a free-flowing shotmaker by inclination, has been having problems with his footwork throughout this series, time and again ending up playing the ball around his pads. Judging by today's evidence, he hasn't managed to sort it out yet -- but on the other hand, he has shown a tendency to hang in there, get the runs when he can, and put some kind of price on his wicket. His 38 off 51, today, before succumbing to a Harris slower ball in the 21st over, was not perhaps the kind of strikerate he would have wanted, but it did hold one end up and get Lanka to a solid 109/3.

From then on, it was all Sri Lanka. Mahela Jayawardene, with five centuries to his name in ODIs, hasn't exactly lived up to his enormous reputation as Aravinda D'Silva's natural heir in the middle order. This innings, though, was a reversal of the recent form book as Jayawardene mounted an electric assault on the bowling. With Marvan Atapattu looking to anchor one end and rotate the strike, Jayawardene turned on a display of improvisation that would have done Aravinda proud.

Thanks largely to his efforts, Lanka at the end of 26 overs, headed into the slog phase on a healthy 130/3, going at 5.01 per over. Atapattu attempted to change gear, and played a brilliant inside out cover drive for six off Daniel Vettori, but one ball later tried to go the other way, to the on side, missed with a heave, and was smartly stumped for 34/39 (165/4).

Jayawardene then took the bit between his teeth. A dance down the wicket fetched him a straight six off Dion Nash. He then went after McMillan, twice in succession stepping outside his off stump to change the line and hit the ropes on the leg side (the second four brought up his 50 off just 41 deliveries). McMillan finally got some revenge in the 35th over when Jayawardene's attempt to lift over long on resulted in a miscue, ending an innings of 58/46 deliveries (208/5 Lanka). But the damage had already been done -- Jayawardene had helped take Lanka from 150 to 200 in the space of just 33 balls. He had also been instrumental in two outstanding partnerships, for 56 off 58 balls with Atapattu and then 43 off just 27 with Arnold.

Russel Arnold produced a charming little unbeaten cameo of 22 off 18 balls, and Lanka with 221/6 off its allotted 36 overs had easily taken all the tricks in the first half of the match.

New Zealand needed a good start. What it got, was a disaster. Vaas and Dilhara Fernando -- the latter being rewarded for some outstanding quick bowling by a promotion to opening bowler -- used the pitch to perfection and, inside the first 8 overs, had broken the back of the Kiwi chase.

The fun and games began in the third over, when Vaas -- who, with the bat, had earlier completed 1000 ODI runs to go with his 200+ wickets -- straightened one on line to take Sinclair out LBW. One ball later, he produced a blinder, hitting line of off and seaming very late off a full length to square up Oram and find the edge through to second slip to reduce the Kiwis to 3/2.

That was merely the beginning. Vaas again got one to seam and lift off length to defeat Stephen Fleming's attempted slash over point -- Gunawardene held well at first slip and the Kiwis at the end of that over were 18/3.

McMillan added to the confusion when he backed up too far to beat a direct throw from square leg. And Fernando, who at the other end had been bowling with pace and fire but little luck, did a Vaas with a delivery that kicked and seamed off good length to find the edge of Astle (4/21) for Gunawardene to take another sharp catch at slip. At that point, the Kiwis were 18/5 and the match, for all practical purposes, was effectively over.

Harris and Nash then put their heads together and sought to take the Kiwis out of trouble -- but given the magnitude of the chase, all that the Kiwis could reasonably hope to do was to ensure that their net run rate didn't suffer too much as a result of this game. At the halfway mark -- 18 overs -- the Kiwis had just about made it to 46/5, an improvement certainly on the earlier position, but that is as far as it went.

In the 20th over, Muralitharan made one go the wrong way, beating Nash all ends up and finding the edge through to the keeper. Of the 15 people on the field, the umpire at the officiating end alone remained unmoved.

Off the 2nd ball of the 23rd over, Harris clipped one fine off his legs and Nash took off for the single. Atapattu slammed back the throw and a casual Kaluwitharana let it go -- only for the ball to clip the stump and dislodge the bail with Nash clearly out of his ground. Two balls later, Parore the new man in came down the track looking to chip the off spinner, failed to make it to the pitch, and patted back a simple caught and bowled to reduce New Zealand to 57/7.

And the very next ball had Vettori standing on the edge of his crease, bat scything in a bid to play off to leg as Dharmasena, going round the wicket to the left hander, angled one onto off and middle to beat the shot and find the pad, making it three wickets in the over, two off two balls. 58/8. Mills staved off the bat-trick with a brace through gully, in the 25th over -- but once that over was bowled, the Kiwis had lost their last faint hope, that rain would intervene before 25 overs were completed (59/8) and thus ensure that they shared points with the Lankans.

A frustrated Fernando in his second spell got fed up of hitting Harris on the pad and screaming out appeals, a couple of which seemed very adjacent. The umpire, equally bored, finally gave one (89/9) -- which was plumb as far as line went, but then there was the little fact that Fernando had overstepped the bowling crease by a little matter of a foot. And the ball had landed outside line of leg, to make matters worse.

Consistency in decision making, by umpires and the match referee alike, is certainly not a distinguishing feature of this tournament.

Tuffey, at the tail of the Kiwi innings, threw his bat around with some vim -- but the Kiwis ended up 115/9 in the allotted 36 overs, losing by 106 runs.

For India, today's result had only marginal relevance. Had the Kiwis beaten Sri Lanka, they would have got to 6 points. If India had then defeated both New Zealand and Sri Lanka in the last two league encounters, there would have been a three way tie, with the net run rate coming into play.

With the Kiwis going down here, however, the position is now crystal clear. There is no point in India tying with New Zealand (by winning tomorrow's encounter) -- as per the rules of this tournament, if two teams finish on equal points, then their head to head results will decide who goes through. By that criteria, if India and New Zealand tie on points, the Kiwis will go through by virtue of the fact that they have won two encounters already against India.

What all this means, from the point of view of a final berth, is that India has to win against New Zealand tomorrow, and against Sri Lanka the day after, to go through. Lose even one of those games, and it's all over.

If team India needs a silver lining, they could try this on for size -- at the least, they know exactly what they have to do.

Now all they gotta do is just do it.
Scoreboard