Sri Lanka prepare for New Zealand challenge with unchanged T20I squad
Sri Lanka have named a strong 16-member squad led by Charith Asalanka for a six-match white-ball series involving three T20Is followed by three ODIs, against New Zealand.
West Indies captain Kieron Pollard came hard on his team after they were defeated in back-to-back T20Is by New Zealand. The Black Caps on Sunday won by a huge margin of 72 runs to take home the three-match series.
“But between overs 10 to 15 we sort of lost it there,” Pollard said.
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“In terms of the energy and feel and erraticness in the field, that’s not the standard that we want to set for ourselves, and not the standard anyone wants to see in international cricket.
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Right-handed wicketkeeper-batsman Glenn Phillips scored a brilliant hundred to help New Zealand win at the Bay Oval on Sunday.
After putting a mammoth score of 238/3, the Black Caps restricted the visitors to 166/9 in their allotted 20 overs to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Phillips scored 108 runs with the help of ten 4s and eight 6s during the course of 51-ball knock. He was ably supported by Devon Conway (65* off 37 balls) as the duo shared a 184-run stand for the third wicket. Martin Guptill, who opened the innings, also contributed with 34 runs.
“If we had stayed in the contest a bit longer, try to limit the damage to 200, 190 or so, we’d have been for the challenge but we were behind the eight ball after that 10th over and it just went pear-shaped from there.”
Chasing the mammoth target, West Indies were never in the hunt as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Skipper Kieron Pollard top-scored for the visitors as he scored 28 runs in 15 balls before becoming Mitchell Santner’s victim.
Apart from Pollard, Keemo Paul and Shimron Hetmyer scored 26* and 25 runs respectively. For the hosts, Kyle Jamieson starred with the ball as he returned with figures of 2/15 in his four overs.
With agency inputs
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