Kiwis crush Lanka by innings

WELlINGTON, New Zealand, Friday - New Zealand's swing bowlers outwitted Sri Lanka's batsmen to wrap up an emphatic series-winning, innings-and-38-run victory at the Basin Reserve.

Sri Lanka's hopes of a successful rearguard action slowly faded during the fourth day as their middle order melted in the second session. Tillakaratne Dilshan fought back with a sizzling 73 from 99 balls in the evening, but by then it was too late.

Farveez Maharoof, the nightwatchman, resisted in the morning with an impressive 36, Kumar Sangakkara collected 45 with a steely glint in his eye, Dilshan threw caution to the wind during a daring counter-assault and Chaminda Vaas stood firm for a while in making 38. But no Sri Lanka batsman was able to construct the big hundred needed wipe out the 311-run deficit and save the game.

James Franklin, bowling with his best rhythm of an otherwise inconsistent series, provided the key breakthroughs, claiming the prize wicket of Marvan Atapattu, one player capable of a long defensive innings, in the first session. He followed lunch with the scalps of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara, and fittingly finished it off with the last wicket as Vaas chopped on.

Franklin's efforts were well supported by Kyle Mills, who rediscovered some rhythm and confidence to make his first real impact with the ball in the series, and Nathan Astle, who bowled gunbarrel-straight and wobbled it around enough to finish with 6 for 62 in the match. New Zealand's best bowler in the series, Chris Martin, had a quiet day, but his dismissal of Sanath Jayasuriya on Wednesday started the victory charge.

The magnificent batting of Lou Vincent, an obvious choice as Man of the Match for his 224 that set up the victory, was surely the highlight.

They started promisingly in the morning as New Zealand were left frustrated by a wicketless first hour. Mills and Franklin initially lacked menace as the ball refused to swing, and Maharoof and Atapattu added 43. However, with New Zealand's disappointment starting to mount, Franklin delivered the perfect line-and-length ball to draw Atapattu into one of his signature high-elbowed cover-drives. The ball was sliding across him and he edged straight to Fleming at first slip.

Maharoof and Sangakkara then shared a useful stand, adding 48 in an 18-over period. Fleming, however, changed the bowling shortly before the break and Mills suddenly clicked, moving the ball away from the right-hander Maharoof, and eventually created a chance that was swallowed by Astle at second slip.

- (Cricinfo)

SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS 211
NEW ZEALAND - 1ST INNINGS

C D Cumming lbw b Vass			 47
J. A. H. Marshall lbw b Vass		 28
H. J. H. Marshall c Jayawardene b Vass	  6 
L. Vincent run out 			224
N. J. Astle c Dilashan b Vass		  0 
S. P. Fleming c Kalavitigoda b Vass	 88
B. B. McCullum c and b Vass		  0
J. E. C. Franklin lbw b Malinga 	 15
K. D. Mills c Jayawardene b Malinga 	 31
P. J. Wiseman not out 			 32
C. S. Martin not out 			  4
EXTRAS (12-nb, 1-w, 11-b, 23-lb)	 47
TOTAL (for 9 wickets dec)		522
FALL OF WICKETS: 61, 70, 153, 153, 294, 294, 342, 440, 499
BOWLING: W P U J C Vass 40-12-108-6, 
S L Malinga 34-8.2-124-2, M F Maharoof 28-11-96-0, 
D P M D Jayawardene 6-2-14-0, U D U Chandana 28-4-97-0, 
S T Jayasuriya 9-2-34-0, T M Dilshan 1-0-15-0

SRI LANKA - 2ND INNINGS
S. T. Jayasuriya c Vincent b Martin 		 2
M. S. Atapattu c Fleming b Franklin 		16
M. F. Maharoof c Astle b Mills 			36
K. C. Sangakkara b Franklin 			45
D. P. M. D. Jayawardene c McCullum b Franklin	13
T. T. Samaraweera c Fleming b Astle 		17
T. M. Dilshan b Astle 				73
S. Kalavitigoda c McCullum b Mills 		 1
W. P. U. J. C. Vass b Franklin 			38
U. D. U. Chandana b Astle 			 8
S. L. Malinga not out 				 0
EXTRAS (8-nb, 2-w, 4-b, 101-lb)			24
TOTAL (all out)					273
FALL OFF WICKET: 6, 47, 95, 117, 137, 164, 177, 255, 267, 273
BOWLING: C. S. Martin 18-4-50-1, K. D. Mills 11-4-34-2, 
L. Vincent 1-0-2-0, N. J. Astle 13-4-27-3, 
P. J. Wiseman 26-7-75-0, J. E. C. Franklin 23.5-4-71-4.