The seamers from New Zealand sent Sri Lanka falling in the opening five overs until they finally stuttered to 157 all out, causing a second consecutive collapse. The series was then decided 2-0 by New Zealand, who, despite an early fall of their own, walked smoothly to the target in 33 overs.
At No. 3, Will Young kept the chase together, scoring an unflappable 86 not out. He maintained his composure despite wickets falling at the other end until Henry Nicholls joined him. The two added 100 runs for the fifth wicket, with Nicholls scoring an unbeaten 44.
Sri Lanka has now lost five games in a row (in completed matches) and seven times in eight games, confirming that they did not directly qualify for this year’s World Cup.
Instead, they will need to compete in the qualifying round in Zimbabwe in the middle of the year to secure a spot. With 175 points, New Zealand has secured its leading position in the ODI Super League.
However, Matt Henry was the one who started the collapse by removing two of Sri Lanka’s top three batsmen, before finishing with 3 for 14 from his 10 overs and setting the tone for the game.
When Sri Lanka’s batters once more failed to deal with the bounce that New Zealand’s seamers were producing, Henry Shipley and Daryl Mitchell each also claimed three wickets.
Then again, players like Charith Asalanka and Dhananjaya de Silva also lost their wickets to Mitchell’s bowling, trying to hit the ball legside but unable to adjust for the extra bounce on the pitch.
De Silva’s leading edge fell into mid off’s hands after Asalanka was caught at deep midwicket. Sri Lanka was down for five runs in the 19th over at 70 for 5.
Sri Lanka’s only meaningful innings was played by Pathum Nissanka, who twice overturned “out” rulings during the powerplay on his way to a score of 57 off 64 balls.
Although dismissing a few poor balls early on, Nissanka remained mostly silent throughout Sri Lanka’s powerplay as wickets continued falling at the other end.
Although he did hit Shipley for six in the tenth over, this was primarily done to relieve pressure after the first six overs failed to produce a boundary and lost three wickets.
He quickly reached his fifth career half-century off of 58 balls, but in Sri Lanka’s most wasteful dismissal, he was out in the following over.
Nissanka decided against going for a quick single towards cover and instead tried to send Shanaka, a non-striker, back to his crease. Nissanka, who had paused, had no chance of making his ground as Shanaka continued to advance.
Shanaka, who scored 31 runs, and Chamika Karunaratne, who scored 24, provided some brief resistance for Sri Lanka’s bottom middle order, but they were able to put together enough substantial innings. Within 42 overs, Sri Lanka was all out.
Young entered the crease in the second over and was mostly cautious throughout the powerplay, hitting only three genuinely poor deliveries to the boundary as he advanced to 20 off 36 while the fielding limitations were in effect.
Even after Tom Latham was out, leaving New Zealand at 59 for 4, and Sri Lanka with a tight window of opportunity, he was calm throughout the early middle overs.
There were a few anxious moments at the beginning of Young and Nicholls’ combination, but soon they found a rhythm of accumulating safe runs into the outfield.
Young’s draw shot off Kumara’s bowling landed just a hair short of the deep fielder, resulting in Nicholls being given out lbw on one but having his dismissal successfully contested.
After a while, scoring was simpler, and New Zealand was loping towards their goal due to both batsmen’ ground-covering boundaries. Young reached 50 off the 71st delivery he faced, easing Lahiru Kumara to the straight boundary.
This was Young’s third occasion reaching this milestone, with his first two excursions to 50 bringing centuries. The final hit of the contest was the one that the duo used to reach their century stand.
Lahiru Kumara was the most fierce of Sri Lanka’s bowlers, dismissing both Tom Blundell and Chad Bowes in the same over as both batters nicked to the wicketkeeper.
He took Bowes’ wicket with his first delivery. New Zealand was down to 21 for 3 when Mitchell was again caught edging by Kasun Rajitha in the seventh over.
But because of Young, the hosts survived that hard time.