Lanka beat New Zealand in Sharjah
Sanath Jayasuriya produced a telling all-round performance and equalled his one-day record of hitting 30 off one over as Sri Lanka beat New Zealand by 106 runs in the Sharjah triangular series on Tuesday.
Skipper Jayasuriya slammed 107 off 116 balls with six sixes and three fours and then took two for 37 in the second match of the tournament that also features Pakistan.
With Mahela Jayawardene, who cracked an equally-aggressive 116, Jayasuriya put on a match-winning stand of 184 after two wickets had fallen in the opening over.
Sri Lanka reached 269 for nine from 50 overs and then bowled New Zealand out for 163.
New Zealand had launched a perfect riposte with openers Chris Nevin and Mathew Sinclair rattling up 82 runs in the first 16 overs.
But their innings fell apart after the departure of Nevin, lbw to off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for 48 from 50 balls.
Sinclair, who survived a chance when Russel Arnold dropped a simple catch at slip off Muralitharan, hung on for a while but wickets fell at regular intervals.
When Sinclair, who hit 60 from 80 balls, was lbw to Arnold in the 32nd over with the score at 134 for six it was virtually all and over.
Kumar Dharmasena chipped in by taking two for 31 and with Muralitharan finishing with three for 12, New Zealand were bowled out in 42.1 overs.
Earlier, Jayasuriya provided the fireworks in the 43rd over, smashing a hapless Chris Harris for four consecutive sixes, one four and a two in that order to match his own record.
He performed the same feat against Pakistan's Aamir Sohail in Singapore in 1996, although the sequence was not the same.
New Zealand, missing a number of senior players including Stephen Fleming and Chris Cairns, made early inroads with pace bowler Daryl Tuffey getting rid of Marvan Atapattu and Kumar Sangakkara in three deliveries in the first over.
But Jayasuriya and Jayawardene made up for the double blow with some fine batting.
Jayawardene, the more aggressive of the two, completed his century - his fifth in 74 one-day internationals - in the 33rd over.
Jayawardene, later named man of the match, fell four overs later, playing a tired shot straight to Lou Vincent off Tuffey, who returned figures of three for 49.
Jayasuriya took over the charge after his departure and flayed the seemingly innocuous New Zealand attack at will.
Scoreboard
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