New Zealand win, but
Lanka sneaks into final

Playing to their potential at last in the tournament, New Zealand pulled out a fine 79-run upset win but it was Sri Lanka that sneaked into the tri-series final in Sharjah on Tuesday night, thanks to a complicated run-rate system.

With victory in the last league match, New Zealand drew level at two points each with their opponent, but Sri Lanka earned the right to challenge Pakistan, who have won all their four league matches, on account of a better run rate -0.08 as against -0.99 of the Kiwis. The final would be played on Friday.

Put in to bat, New Zealand hit up 248 for 6 in their allotted 50 overs and in reply Sri Lankans could manage just 169 for 8 when they ran out of overs.

Thanks mainly to a fine spell of eight overs in which he took 3/21, paceman Kyle Mills got rid of the top three Sri Lankan batsmen including skipper Sanath Jayasuriya who made a listless 25 with as many as four 'lives'.

That broke the back of Sri Lankan batting and after some resistance from Mahela Jayawardhane who scored a fluent 41 off 55 balls, the tail in the form of Chaminda Vaas (24 off 53 balls) and Nuwan Zoysa (19 off 14 balls) found the task tough against the accuracy of Kiwi bowling.

Earlier, New Zealand were off to a shaky start when they lost in-form Chris Nevin for a duck off the first ball of Chaminda Vaas.

But Matthew Sinclair, who scored 117 against Pakistan in a league match last week, resurrected New Zealand's innings with a sedate 118-run knock which included five boundaries and two sixes.

His 141-run stand for the third wicket with Matthew Bell who struck a fine 66 off 97 balls with six boundaries put New Zealand on a firm ground.

Sinclair reached his ton in the 46th over when he drove Vaas to mid-on to pick a couple of runs.

But once Bell was dismissed after being stumped by Romesh Kaluwitharna off Russel Arnold, there was a familiar collapse with four wickets falling for 59 runs, thanks to some tight bowling by the Sri Lankans.

But gutsy Sinclair saw his team through to a challenging total, ably supported towards the end by Andre Adams who blasted 13 off nine deliveries.

Jayasuriya picked two wickets for 47 off his quota of 10 overs to claim his 199th wicket in one-day internationals.

Dependable off-spinner Muthiah Muralitharan did not have much to celebrate for on his 29th birthday today, capping his spell with one for 38.

New Zealand
C Nevin c Kaluwitharana b Vaas 0
M Sinclair not out 118
M Bell st Kaluwitharana b Arnold 66
C McMillan c Samaraweera b Jayasuriya 17
J Oram c Samaraweera b Murlitharan 2
C Harris c and b Jayasuriya 16
L Vincent c Jayawardena b Zoysa 8
A Adams not out 13
Extras: (lb2, w3, nb3) 8
Total (for 6 wkts off 50 overs) 248
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-141, 3-167, 4-176, 5-200, 6-227.
Bowling: Vaas 9-0-57-1, Zoysa 8-0-42-1, Murlitharan 10-0-38-1, Samaraweera 8-0-37-0, Jayasuriya 10-0-47-2, Arnold 5-0-25-1.

Sri Lanka
S Jayasuriya c Walker b Mills 25
R Kaluwitharana b Mills 0
M Atapattu c Nevin b Mills 5
D Jayawardene c and b Bradburn 41
S De Saram c Mills b Bradburn 11
K Sangakkara lbw b Harris 6
R Arnold run out 1
W Vaas not out 24
T Samaraweera run out 27
D Zoysa not out 19
Extras (lb3 w4 nb3) 10
Total (for eight wickets, 50 overs) 169

Fall of wickets: 1-14 2-23 3-37 4-78 5-87 6-91 7-97 8-138

Bowling: Tuffey 8-0-25-0 (w-1), Mills 10-2-30-3 (nb-1, w-1), Oram 5-0-20-0, Bradburn 10-1-22-2, Harris 10-0-27-1 (w-1), Adams 3-0-12-0 (nb-1, w-1), McMillan 4-0-30-0 (nb-1)

Man of the match: Mathew Sinclair and Kyle Mills of New Zealand (joint)

Agencies