In their gripping third and final Twenty20 international, New Zealand defeated Sri Lanka by four wickets on Saturday in Queenstown to win the series 2-1 with to opening batsman Tim Seifert’s scorching 88.
While New Zealand cruised for much of their pursuit of 183, Seifert’s savage attack on Sri Lanka’s bowlers throughout his 48-ball innings featured 10 fours and three sixes. Nevertheless, a thrilling final over in which three wickets dropped ensured a tense conclusion.
The 28-year-old lost out on a first century after falling to Pramod Madushan in the 17th over with New Zealand seemed secure with 154 on the board. His unbeaten 79 had helped New Zealand win by nine wickets in the second game.
When Sri Lanka came back from there, Mark Chapman hit Lahiru Kumara for a six before being caught at cover with New Zealand needing 10 runs in the last over.
Daryl Mitchell and Jimmy Neesham were both run out after the following ball, but Rachin Ravindra maintained his composure to lead his team to victory, ensuring there would be no Super Over drama like in the previous game.
We exceeded the run rate, and occasionally you do need to go down a gear or two, Seifert remarked. It requires equilibrium. The over we intended to target for 10 or 20 runs was the one I got out of.
And we later saw that the bowling side simply needs a few wickets to regain the initiative.
Sri Lanka had been trounced 2-0 by the hosts in the previous test and one-day international series.
After winning the toss, New Zealand requested that Sri Lanka bat first. The openers, Pathum Nissanka (25) and Kusal Mendis (73), overcame some difficult swing bowling in the opening six overs to establish a strong foundation.
Mendis, who was dropped by Mitchell at slip when he was on 10, went on to punish New Zealand with a 48-ball innings that featured six fours and five sixes as the 28-year-old joined Kusal Perera in reaching his 12th half-century (33).
Once they left, Dhananjaya de Silva and captain Dasun Shanaka both got off to strong starts, but the tourists were unable to overwhelm New Zealand by the conclusion of the innings and fell short of a winning score.
We fell short by 10 to 15 runs, according to Shanaka. “On the batting side, that was the biggest deficiency. The series was incredibly successful for New Zealand.
