Lankans chase down Kiwis in style

At this point, we have no evidence of what exactly the Indians were doing on Wednesday afternoon.

We hope, though, that they were watching the Sri Lanka-New Zealand game, fourth in the ongoing triseries featuring the three teams. Because the host nation served up an object lesson on chasing in inimical batting conditions -- a lesson greatly needed by the Indians who, the other day, failed to win from a 27 runs off 27 balls situation with four wickets in hand.

The Kiwis won the toss and opted to bat first -- and this time round, got its opening act right. Mathew Sinclair opted for the sedate anchoring role while Nathan Astle flowered into shot-making right from the start, and the Kiwis cruised to 49/0 in 10 overs, then stepped up the pace further and threatened to take a choke-hold on the match.

Sinclair, however, made the mistake of trying to loft third seamer Dilhara Fernando on the up -- the skiddy seamer came on to the bat that bit too late, with one that held up off the deck, and Sinclair only managed to put up a swirling skier for Jayasuriya to demonstrate good outfield skills at mid off.

Oram was sent in to pinch-hit -- a tactic that seems to be increasingly in favour in this tournament -- but as with the Indians vide Harbhajan Singh, the ploy didn't quite bring about the desired results. Kumara Dharmasena bowled one flattish, tweaking it to get a bit of turn. Oram went down the track looking to lift, failed to get to the pitch, and managed only to hole out to Jayawardene at long off.

The Kiwis -- thanks mainly to Astle's free-flowing 50 off 59 at that stage -- made it to 101/2 at the end of 20 overs which, on the slowish tracks in use in this tournament, qualified as a very good start to the innings.

Astle in fact appeared to have the measure of this track, where shots in the V offer the most reward for the least risk, and the horizontal bat shots bring with them more than their share of risk. Having, however, helped define batting on such tracks, Astle then lost it completely and stepped to leg to try and cut against the turn. End of story, as Russel Arnold with his first ball of the match turned it in to take out the off stump, to reduce the Kiwis to 120/3 at the end of 25.

The Lankans appear, in this tournament, to have perfected the art of bowling -- the seamers are given longish spells at the start of proceedings, then relegated to the role of boundary-guards while a succession of full and part-time spinners bottle the opposing batsmen down.

This tactic worked here as well. Though McMillan and Vincent bustled about, they could make little progress against the slow turners on offer. A frustrated McMillan attempted to step to leg and force to off -- and Muralitharan, like Arnold before him, showed just why that shot spells folly in conditions like these.

The Kiwis, at 169/4 in 40, seemed set for a 240-ish score, given the wickets in hand and also the fact that the dangerous Murali (10-0-31-1) ended his spell in the 43rd over. Arnold, however, was having a great day in the office and in the 44th over, he got Vincent pulling at a shortish off break for Gunawardene, at mid off, to dive and hold the screamer at full stretch. Gunawardene seemed a touch surprised when he came up with the ball in his hand -- given the way the shot was powered, his surprise shouldn't surprise you.

Adam Parore was the only Kiwi batsmen equal to the end overs slog. The rest attempted to bat around him, but tight bowling and a high class fielding effort ensured that the Kiwis didn't really break away. A score of 236/8, though, was higher than any team has chased successfully in this tournament to date, and at the half way stage the visiting side was definitely favourites to win.

The odds on a Kiwi win went up even higher early in the Lankan reply, when Jayasuriya became the latest victim of a bad umpiring call. The Mills delivery landed outside leg stump and was straightening, but the umpire had his finger up and the Lankan captain -- who, to judge by his face, was not a happy chappie -- had to walk.

Kaluwitharana was sent in at one drop to try and create the kind of momentum his captain normally provides. But for the second time in the match, the pinch-hitting option flopped as Kalu was turned square by a delivery hitting line of off, that moved off the seam to take the edge through to the keeper.

Lanka's problems were further compounded when Tuffey struck twice in one over. An angled delivery had Gunawardene slashing, for Harris to dive to his wrong side and snare the ball as it travelled at warp speed past him. Immediately thereafter, Jayawardene pushed to extra cover and took off for a run. The fielder though was quick, and accurate -- and Jayawardene was a good two yards outside his crease when the throw crashed into his stumps.

At 27/4 in 10, Lanka were down and almost out. At 100/4 in 26.5, the home side had mounted a remarkable recovery -- and the main architect was Marvan Atapattu, who with a combination of clever touch play and some classy driving through the covers, brought up his 50 off 73 balls, contributing exactly half the Lankan total at that point.

Russel Arnold was content to leave Atapattu in charge, and help him along by working the ones and chipped braces to move the board along. The 100-run fourth wicket partnership came up in the 33rd over, and Lanka increasingly threatened to take the game away when an unfortunate run out saw the end of Atapattu.

The batsman dived in plenty of time, and the bat was in fact over the crease when the bails went off. Unfortunately for him, he had grounded his glove and, in the process, raised his bat off the deck -- a rather sad end to a very well compiled innings of 66 off 91 balls (Lanka 137/5).

With Atapattu exiting, Arnold (who in the 35th over got to his 7th ODI half century) took on the onus of senior partner while Suresh Perera, who in this tournament has been providing attractive cameos with some innovative strokeplay, came in to help push the score along.

The two kept the board moving rapidly and, by the 44th over, had stitched together a 50-run partnership off just 57 balls. But by that point, the ask had climbed to 50 runs off 40 balls, and the Kiwis with their bits and pieces bowlers and electric ground-fielding, had the game well in control.

At 201/5 in 45, the Lankans were still facing a 7+ run per over ask. Russel Arnold and Suresh Perera then turned it on, in a classic display of precision shot-making. They chipped the bowling around, running like Olympic sprinters (Perera had Jayawardene as his legs, thanks to an injury) and when the distracted bowlers erred in line, promptly climbed into the loose deliveries and took maximum toll.

What was noticeable was the tactics -- both batsmen played impeccably straight, neither tried the kind of step-away-and-slosh tactics the Indians had attempted in their last game. It was all very orthodox stuff -- and a reminder that irrespective of the situation or the format, classical cricket always pays.

Both batsmen absorbed the pressure brilliantly, stuck to the job of knocking the singles and twos -- and were merciless on the bad deliveries. Throughout, they kept the target in sight -- and successive boundaries in the 48th over not only got Perera to his first half century in ODIs -- somehow, the way this lad bats makes you think this will by no means be the last -- but also brought the equation down to a nice 8 needed off 15.

From then on, it was mathematics. The win came off the 3rd ball of the 48th over, thanks to another Perera four -- and the two not out batsmen, with a partnership of 103 at better than a run a ball, had shown the strokemakers of the Indian side how chasing is done.

Scoreboard