New Zealand break series jinx

New Zealand break series jinx
Reuters

CHRISTCHURCH, FEBRUARY 11: New Zealand won the fifth and final one-day international against Sri Lanka in Christchurch by 13 runs on Sunday and ended Sri Lanka’s chances of making a clean sweep.

The final tally was 4-1 and it was a fitting finale to a low-scoring series, with New Zealand scoring 282 and Sri Lanka falling short on 269.

Sri Lanka had to score 14 off the last over with just one wicket remaining and Mutiah Muralitharan hobbling and using Russel Arnold as a runner.

The tourists were rocked by a fine opening spell from James Franklin and Daryl Tuffey and within seven overs had lost three wickets, with the dangerous Sanath Jayasuriya and Aravinda de Silva victims of left-armer Franklin and Kumar Sangakkara falling lbw to Tuffey.

But a 99-run partnership between Marvan Attapattu and Mahela Jayawardene put Sri Lanka back on the path and after those two went Kumar Dharmasena and Russel Arnold took over with a 59-run stand.

Nuwan Zoysa provided the final push with some big hitting, but he fell to a catch on the long-on boundary in the penultimate over.

New Zealand’s heroes were Jacob Oram, Man of the Match, with his big-hitting 59, Chris Harris (52 n.o) and Lou Vincent’s (31 n.o) sixth wicket partnership of 85 in 63 balls to push the home side to easily their biggest score of the series and set Sri Lanka a much sterner task than they had managed to date.

Scoreboard

New Zealand:A Parore b Gallage 49; C Spearman c Jayasuriya b Gallage 5; S Fleming c Sangakkara b Fernando 40; R Twose c Sangakkara b Fernando 1; J Oram c Attapattu b Muralitharan 59; C McMillan run out (Jayasuriya) 23; C Harris not out 52; L Vincent not out 31; Extras (w5, nb5, lb11, b1): 22; Total (for 6 wkts, 50 overs): 282.Fall of wickets:1-18, 2-85, 3-87, 4-144, 5-191, 6-197

Bowling: Zoysa 9-0-46-0, Gallege 9-0-42-2, Dharmasena 9-0-58-0, Fernando 10-0-65-2, Muralitharan 10-0-44-1, Jayasuriya 3-0-15-0.

Sri Lanka: S Jayasuriya c Vincent b Franklin 3; M Attapattu run out (Oram) 76; A de Silva c Fleming b Franklin 5; K Sangakkara lbw Sangakkara 1; D Jayawardene b Harris 46; R Arnold c Twose b McMillan 51; K Dharmasena c Harris b Franklin 30; N Zoysa c Vettori b Tuffey 32; D Fernando b McMillan 0; M Muralitharan b McMillan 4; I Gallage not out 3; Extras (w4, lb6, nb8): 18; Total (all out, 49.2 overs): 269.Fall of wickets:1-9, 2-18, 3-21, 4-120, 5-150, 6-209, 7-259, 8-260, 9-263

Bowling: Tuffey 10-1-51-2, Franklin 9-0-44-3, Oram 3-0-23-0, Vettori 9-0-59-0, Harris 10-0-42-1, McMillan 8.2-0-44-3.

Man of the Match: Jacob Oram (New Zealand)