published by, Akash Biswas
Last Update: March 13, 2023, 2:20 pm IST
New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by 2 wickets (ICC Photo)
A thrilling New Zealand win ended Sri Lanka’s chances of making it to the World Test Championship final, handing the place to India instead
Kane Williamson struck a century as New Zealand sealed a two-wicket last-ball win against Sri Lanka on a rain-curtailed final day in Christchurch on Monday.
In a state of disrepair, the only Sri Lankan bowlers and wicket-keepers not to defend the boundary in the last 10 overs as New Zealand chased down their target of 285.
The winning run came from a bye after Williamson missed a swipe at the ball.
He scored 121 not out as New Zealand made 285–8 and Sri Lanka fell two wickets short of their target.
New Zealand’s thrilling win ended Sri Lanka’s chances of making it to the final of the World Test Championship and instead gave India a chance.
When rain washed out the first two sessions on the fifth day, the umpires ruled that at least 53 overs would be played in the evening, meaning New Zealand would have to average 4.85 per over.
After a steady but slow start that saw the hosts post 90-3, Williamson and Daryl Mitchell picked up the pace.
They shared an ODI partnership of 142 runs in 26 overs for the fourth wicket.
Williamson was dropped by Niroshan Dickwella on 33, which cost Sri Lanka dearly as he brought up his 27th century.
The 31-year-old Mitchell, a late international arrival, contributed 81 runs to boost his average from 26 innings to 59.04.
In a match of see-saw fortunes, Sri Lanka had the upper hand on day two before Mitchell’s first-innings century and Matt Henry’s flamboyant 72 – the last 60 from just 35 balls – turned New Zealand’s game. Kindness.
Sri Lanka came back into contention on the fourth day with a 115 from Angelo Mathews, who shared 105 for the fifth wicket with Dinesh Chandimal and then 60 with Dhananjaya de Silva.
New Zealand needed 285 to win when Sri Lanka were bowled out for 302 in their second innings, where the highest fourth innings score by New Zealand was 256–8 in the 2018 draw against England.
Devon Conway was removed for five, leaving the final day on a knife edge.
When play resumed on Monday, Prabhat Jayasuriya started with the wickets of Tom Latham for 25 and Henry Nicholls for 20.
Asita Fernando bowled Mitchell and Tom Blundell (three) and Michael Bracewell was caught for 10 to leave New Zealand at 266-6 and needing 19 runs with 16 balls to spare.
With Tim Southee (one) and Matt Henry (four) coming and going, Williamson was about to take the game to the last ball when Neil Wagner was out for a duck.
For Sri Lanka, Fernando took 3-63 and Jayasuriya took 2-92.
The second Test starts on Friday in Wellington.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)
