By: Tarish Bhatt
Embarrassing, pathetic and unfortunate. These were the words of Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews, after his side by basically clobbered was New Zealand at the Hagley Oval.
New Zealand were ruthless to say the least in the 2nd ODI, they not only bundled Sri Lanka for a paltry total inside 30 overs, but also chased down the total in just under nine overs.
Nine overs, yes, that’s the time New Zealand took to register a 10-wicket win over the Islanders, and now they are comfortably leading the five-match series 2-0.
“It was quite embarrassing. A pathetic batting display, we didn’t give our bowlers a chance,” Angelo Mathews said. “Three more games to go, its unfortunate we couldn’t even compete in the first two.”
“We wanted to be positive up front and not lose too many wickets,” he added. “But we out middle order was exposed again.”
Sri Lanka, after winning the toss, elected to bat first, and their decision went horribly wrong when they found themselves reeling at 56/5 in just 15 overs.
The Lankan Lions mustered no resilience whatsoever, and were eventually bundled for 117 in 27.4 overs. A few batsmen did get starts, but failed to hang around.
Matt Henry was the wrecker-in-chief and finished with four wickets, while Mitchell McClenaghan picked three. Dough Bracewell and Ish Sodhi took a wicket each.
It was an easy task for New Zealand to win this one, as there was nothing really on the board to trouble them, and Martin Guptill turned it into a nightmare Lanka.
Guptill, literally, butchered the Lions and made a spectacular, unbeaten 30-ball 93, featuring eight monstrous sixes and nine boundaries, as the Black Caps chased down the target in just 8.2 overs.
“You can’t describe that, you only see it once or twice and it was genuine stroke-making,” Brendon McCullum said. “There are very few players who can play like that and Martin is certainly one of them.”
“Motivation is not a factory, we are playing for the country,” he added. “That’s what we expect of us. We are playing a Sri Lanka team who are full of fighters and we need to keep doing our best.”
