Scorecard:

Sri Lanka: 135 for 6 (20 overs)

(Mahela Jayawardene 81 off 51 balls,Chandimal 29* off 23 balls, Shane Bond 2 for 35)

New Zealand: 139 for 8 (19.5 overs)

(Jesse Ryder 42 off 27 balls, Oram 15 off 6 balls, N McCullum 16* off 6 balls, Muralitharam 2 for 25, Matthews 1 for 7, Jayasuriya 1 for 17)

Sri Lanka began with a very jittery start and went down to 44 for 2 with more than 8 overs bowled. Dilshan and Sangkarra very as nervous a new bride on her first night. They fould their saviour in Chandimal, an unknown quantity hitting 29 off 23 balls. Mahela Jayawardene continued his new found linking to the T20 format and smashed 81 off just 51 balls. However, would Sri Lanka pay for the slow batting of their other 2 stalwarts?  Sri Lanka’s score was very similar to their last world cup attemp in the finals against Pakistan, when they went down after scoring 138. Jayawardene scored 60% of their team’s total!!

New Zealand paced themselves much better and got their 50 in around 7 overs. They were definitely ahead. Can they hold? Now Sri Lanka was under pressure. Sri Lanka bowlers started squeezing out the runs, and soon New Zealand were 5 down for 96. Certainly Sri Lanka was ahead and their tail was up. New Zealand arrived at their 100 at 16.5 over, much later than Sri Lanka had done. 3.1 overs to go and 36 to get, this was T20 at its best right away. New Zealnd started creeping close to Sri Lankan score but were behind even on a comparison of 19 over scores. McCullum finally smashed all around to score 16* off just 6 balls to get them home with a ball to spare. He was awarded the Man of the Match for this small but heroic effort.

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