Pacers, Young help New Zealand clinch series

Three-fers from seamers Matt Henry (3-14), Daryl Mitchell (3-32) and Henry Shipley (3-32) set up New Zealand's series clinching six-wicket win in the third and final ODI in Hamilton on Friday (March 31). The trio picked up nine among them to roll out Sri Lanka for a paltry 157 inside 42 overs, while a gritty half-century from opener Pathum Nissanka was only saving grace in Sri Lanka's innings, having opted to bat first. New Zealand suffered a top-order meltdown too, but Will Young's unbeaten 86 and an unbroken century stand with Henry Nicholls (44*) guided them home in the modest chase with 17.1 overs to spare.

Sri Lanka will now have to take a Zimbabwe detour in their quest to make it to the 2023 ODI World Cup in India later this year.

New Zealand suffered early blows in the chase, with four of their top-five falling for single-digit scores. Both of the home team's openers nicked Lahiru Kumara behind off the first and the last ball of the second over. Although, for Tom Blundell, Sri Lanka had to take a review after the initial appeal was turned down. Mitchell was next, slashing and edging a short of length ball just outside off from Kasun Rajitha. Tom Latham chopped on soon after, trying to drive a length ball from Dasun Shanaka without any footwork. Down to 59/4 at the drinks break, New Zealand seemed just as troubled on the pitch with extra bounce.

Amidst all this, Young had a tight battle going with Lahiru. After being twice beaten comprehensively early into his innings, he pulled a couple of short ones from the pacer to backward square for fours in the mandatory powerplay. His driving was on point too, like the textbook straight drive past the bowler to welcome Chamika Karunaratne into the attack in the 12th over. Young brought up New Zealand's fifty in the same over. When Lahiru returned, Young survived a chance on 42 thanks to a vacant second slip region as the outside edge off an attempted drive raced through to the ropes. A much more confident looking drive past the pacer helped bring up a 71-ball fifty with what was probably the shot of the day.

Rajitha returned in search of a breakthrough and was at the recieving end of a gorgeous on-drive second ball, before Young completed the over with a punch through the covers to raise the fifty of his partnership with Nicholls. Almost a silent partner in that alliance, Nicholls had chipped only 11 off 22 at the time but picked up soon enough. After seeing a lucky edge fly through the vacant slip cordon for four, he pulled a short one from Rajitha and then shimmed down the track for a lofted drive off Shanka to bring up New Zealand's 150. A swivel pull for four off Karunaratne in the next over brought the winning runs, taking their partnership to an exact 100.

Shot down for 76 inside 20 overs in game 1 of the series, Sri Lanka were let down by their batting yet again. Besides Nissanka's fight up top and a brief counterattack from skipper Shanaka, the visitors had nothing to write home about as they kept gifting their wickets away.

Henry spelt early trouble for Sri Lanka when he had Nuwanidu Fernando and Kusal Mendis outside-edging to first slip, two overs apart. Mitchell caught a second one in the slips when Shipley had Angelo Mathews poking at a good length ball in the channel. He then came into action with the ball in hand, and struck two blows in quick succession to add to Sri Lanka's woes.

Charith Asalanka took 18 deliveries to open his account, and launched a brief counterattack with a couple of fours but holed out to deep midwicket soon after, leaving Sri Lanka at 50/4 in the 15th over. Dhananjaya de Silva, who had been brought into the XI to lengthen the batting after the first ODI debacle, was the next to depart, spooning a simple catch to mid-on.

Nissanka, who saw the wicket procession from the other end, steadily worked his way to a 58-ball half-century - his sixth in ODI cricket. He held one end up for the visitors, and also brought up the team's 100 in the 24th over with a lofted four over the bowler's head. However, one ball later, the opener was run out, obliging his captain for a non-existent single. Having dropped the ball to the offside, Nissanka took a couple of steps out before deciding there's no run there but Shanaka was committed to it and already more than halfway down the pitch. Running to the danger end, Nissanka was found comfortably short as Sri Lanka slipped to 100/6.

Shanaka showed promise of a counterattack in his brief stay. Dropped on 1 by Mitchell off his own bowling, he lofted Ish Sodhi over the long-off ropes for a six to get going and then another one over Blair Tickner's head. Shipley offered width and the Sri Lankan captain pounced on it to add a couple of boundaries to his tally. But the bowler had the last laugh as Shanaka eventually skied a simple catch to mid-on after an entertaining 36-ball 31.

Wanindu Hasaranga top-edged a short one from Mitchell and skied a simple one for Latham, giving the bowler his third wicket of the day. Henry returned and made an instant impact too. His LBW appeal turned down, he had Karunaratne inside-edging a nipbacker through to the keeper to fall for 24 that took Sri Lanka to 150. Likewise, Shipley returned into the attack in the 42nd over and uprooted Rajitha's legstump to restrict the visitors to just 157.