Sri Lanka wobble on way to decider

CRICKET WORLD CUP SEMI-FINAL:FOR THE first time the World Cup final will be contested between two teams from the subcontinent.

In the end it was Sri Lanka, looking forward now to their second successive final, who hauled themselves across the line by five wickets against a New Zealand side who fought tooth and claw to the end but in the final analysis failed, in their innings, to give their bowlers enough leeway to defend.

The end when it came was clinical in its brutality. Chasing 218 to win, Sri Lanka, at one point 160 for one and cruising even more easily than they had been against England on the same pitch, contrived to lose four wickets for 25 runs.

Thilan Samaraweera and Angelo Mathews, the latter with a runner after he was injured during the Black Caps innings, gradually pulled things closer until 14 were needed in four overs. It was the second over of the batting power play. The field was in.

Tim Southee tore in. Mathews swung his bat and deposited the first ball over wide long-on for six and the third back over the bowler’s head to the boundary.

Samaraweera thought he had sealed the job at the start of the following over from the left-armer Andy McKay, lacerating the ball through extra cover. But the celebratory fireworks had started prematurely and Aleem Dar had called dead ball.

Instead, four balls later Samaraweera steered the same bowler to third man to spark a party in the stands and a lap of honour from the players.

Until the Kiwis intervened to spoil the party, it had been a match heading inevitably in one direction only. Southee had succeeded where England had not, in forcing a catch from Upal Tharanga (brilliantly taken by an airborne Jesse Ryder) but not before he had made a brisk 30, from 31 balls, of an opening stand of 40.

All it did, though, was bring together Tillakaratne Dilshan and the brilliant Kumar Sangakkara.Together the pair added 120 for the second wicket with scarcely an alarm. After making 73, Dilshan drove loosely at Southee and Ryder, at backward point took his second catch.

Vettori then had Mahela Jayawardene lbw, confirmed on review, and when Sangakkara, having made 54 (79 balls with seven fours and a six), upper-cut McKay to third man, it left two new batsmen at the crease and collapse a possibility. Chamara Silva chopped Southee on to give him a third wicket but Samaraweera and Mathews saw Sri Lanka home.

Having won the toss, the Kiwis were never allowed to gain momentum as Sangakkara switched his bowlers shrewdly. Scott Styris was to go on to top score with 57 from 77 balls before he was lbw to Muttiah Muralitharan with his final international delivery in Sri Lanka. A combination of Lasith Malinga’s malevolent yorkers and the illegible spin of Ajantha Mendis ensured the demise of the innings.

Guardian Service