When Trent Boult was undone by the Auckland winds © Getty Images
The swirler
Eden Park is a well-enclosed ground, but in the fifth over, Tillakaratne Dilshan managed to get a ball into the windswept higher reaches of the stadium. This ultimately worked to his advantage. Spotting a short-of-a-length delivery from Mitchell McClenaghan, Dilshan swung hard across the line and gave up a big top edge. The ball shot up in the direction of third man, and Trent Boult peeled off from gully to chase it. It looked like it would be a comfortable running catch, until the ball had risen enough for the wind to catch it. It’s descent was several metres to Boult’s right. He dived to intercept it, but managed only to get fingertips to the ball.
The gate
Aiming a wild stroke over the legside, Danushka Gunathilaka left a gaping space between bat and pad in the second over, for Adam Milne to slip a length ball through. Gunathilaka’s bat was some distance from the ball that clattered into his stumps, but the dismissal was also a gate for other reasons. He was the first of several Sri Lanka batsmen to get out slogging.
The spurned chance
When Martin Guptill top edged his own hoick across the line in the first over of New Zealand’s chase, Sri Lanka had an opportunity to dismiss the opposition’s form batsman cheaply. Perhaps due to a lack of confidence, the wrong fielder went for the ball. Thisara Perera sprinted in from long-on and had the ball fall just short of him, but it should have been Shehan Jayasuriya pursuing it from midwicket. The ball had dropped only about seven metres away from where he had been originally standing.
The flamingo shot
Colin Munro blasted three sixes from four Jeffrey Vandersay deliveries in the eighth over, but his most memorable shot came against Isuru Udana soon after. Munro ran at the bowler and made room to swing the bat, but when Udana sent a full delivery wide of off stump, Munro had to manufacture a shot. He threw one leg backwards, in the air, and leaned over to strike the ball towards wide long-on, connecting well enough to fetch himself another six.
Andrew Fidel Fernando is ESPNcricinfo’s Sri Lanka correspondent. @andrewffernando
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo