SL progressed through to the final and will meet either South Africa or Australia. SL won the toss and elected to bat first but lost Jayasuriya early playing a poor shot. Tharanga rose to the occasion and made a solid 75. Sangakkara promised much but needlessly threw his wicket away just when he and Tharanga gave signs of reviving the innings.
Two leg before decisions almost put paid to Sri Lanka’s chances of putting up a match winning total. Television replays showed that Silva got a thick inside edge on to his pads while Dilshan was given out trying to paddle a ball that would have missed the leg stump. Sky commentator Bob Willis scathingly referred to the decisions as two of the worst he had ever seen in any form of cricket. Both Chamara and Dilshan were given out just when they were steadily building up a partnership with Mahela.
Fortunately for Sri Lanka, Mahela held the innings together and made a superb 115 not out. He accelerated when it counted and his 100 came off 104 balls. Sri Lanka scored more than 100 runs over the last ten overs.
Vaas bowled with his usual accuracy and Malinga’s first spell was simply unplayable. Malinga struck first and got Fleming’s wicket with a beauty. At one point Fulton and Styris steadied the ship and NZ looked capable of matching SL’s total but once Dilshan got Styris the die was cast for NZ. Murali ran through the middle order and in the space of 5 overs NZ lost 4 wickets for 11 runs.
Dilhara Fernando had a poor game and was warned for running on the pitch. His five overs were costly. Dilhara did not do well in his last outing as well when he gave away too many no balls and wides. Why the selectors went with him instead of Maharoof is anybody’s guess.
Sangakkara was somewhat erratic behind the stumps and dropped Franklin off Dilshan.
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