New Zealand recorded their first win in Sri Lanka when they beat the hosts by three runs in the Twenty20 international yesterday.
New Zealand recorded their first win in Sri Lanka when they beat the hosts by three runs in the Twenty20 international yesterday.
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New Zealand players celebrate their T20 win over Sri Lanka yesterday |
New Zealand weathered an early onslaught from Tillakaratne Dilshan (57 off 28) but once Dilshan was dismissed in the eighth over, New Zealand's bowlers dominated to help secure their team a morale-boosting win. Dilshan was always going to be the big wicket and once we got him the spirits lifted," skipper Daniel Vettori said.
"He's playing exceptionally well and when he's in full flight like that it's hard to know how to stop him.
Fortunately once we did we put together a really complete performance. I'm satisfied with the way we fought back. I think everyone's been wanting to see that fight and in this game we really showed it."
Dilshan departure with his team's score at 75 for four exposed a lower middle order and tail that was also a Sri Lankan shortcoming in the test series.
"We always thought if we could get down to the Sri Lankan lower middle order we could put some real pressure on them," Vettori said.
Sangakkara described his team's batting effort as "inexcusable". "It's hard to imagine how we lost it but we did. Dilshan gave the best start we could ask for but the rest of the batting was not up to scratch," he said.
Sangakkara did not spare himself from blame, describing his chip to Brendon McCullum as a "soft" dismissal.
