ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Super Eight Skipper Santner, McConchie, Ravindra guide New Zealand

 Mitchell Santner rescued New Zealand with a 26-ball 47

By M. Shamil Amit

Skipper Mitchell Santner, Cole McConchie and Rachin Ravindra were the heroes of New Zealand in their convincing 61 runs win over co-host Sri Lanka in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Super Eight encounter played at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

Santner and McConchie laid the foundation with their batting and later left arm spinner Ravindra who turned out to be the wrecker of Sri Lanka’s batting with his four wicket haul did the finishing touches to send Sri Lanka reeling in their run chase of 169 runs to restrict them for a score of 107 runs and with this defeat Sri Lanka bows out of contention despite having another match to be played against Pakistan on Saturday.

The prize wicket of Pathum Nissanka taken in the first ball of the first over by pacie Matt Henry who ended with a maiden over and also of Charith Asalanka in his second over made things difficult for Sri Lanka.

At the halfway stage Sri Lanka’s fate was almost sealed with the score on 45 for 4 and Ravindra had them in further trouble with his four wicket haul to send them reeling to 59 for 6 in the 13th over and left with the daunting task of making a further 110 runs in just under eight overs with four wickets remaining.

Apart from Kamindu Mendis and Dunith Wellalage who held on helped Sri Lanka to reach the 100 run mark before being restricted for a score of 107 runs.

New Zealand sent into bat found the going tight after openers Tim Seifer and Finn Allen gave them a sedate start of 30 runs but lost two quick wickets within four runs with both being dismissed with the score on 34 in the fifth over.

Rachin Ravindra and Glenn Phillips and joining together put in some resistance as the pair began a recovery act before they were separated having put on 41 runs for the third wicket with Phillips having his stumps shattered by Dushmantha Chameera having made a run a ball 18 runs.

At the halfway stage of the innings New Zealand was on 75 for 3 and nine runs later Ravindra who was shaping well mistimed a delivery of spinner Maheesh Theekshana and only succeeded in offering a catch to Dushan Hemantha coming to an end a knock of 32 runs made in 22 balls which included three boundaries and a six. With the score on 84 for 4 they lost two more wickets at the same score and were struggling on 84 for 6 in the 13th over. Sri Lanka who was sitting pretty at that stage let themselves off the hook as skipper Mitchell Santner and Cole McConchie denied further success for the Sri Lankan bowlers. Batting with cautiousness and determination the pair accumulated runs with the minimum of fuss as they put up New Zealand's 100 runs on the board which came off 97 balls. They went on to post their 50 runs stand for the seventh wicket which took them just 34 balls which followed with New Zealand's 150 runs coming up in 112 balls. The pair succeeded to hold till the end for New Zealand to end their innings with a respectable score of 168 for 7.

New Zealand in the last four overs accelerated and hit as much as 70 runs to bolster their thanks to skipper Santner who hit a quick fire unbeaten knock of 47 in only 26 balls which had two boundaries and four sixes while McConchie made 31 in 23 balls with three boundaries and two sixes and shared an unbroken 84 runs for the seventh wicket in only 46 balls which was a T20 World Cup record erasing the partnership record of 74 between Michael Hussey and Steve Smith of Australia achieved in 2010.