Murali, Upul guide Lanka to easy victory

CRICKET: Spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan took a four wicket haul and Upul Tharanga hit a solid half century as Sri Lanka came back with a vengeance to beat New Zealand by seven wickets in their crucial International Cricket Council Champions Trophy Mini World Cup group 'B' clash played at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai here on Friday.

The Lankans who needed to win this game to stay alive in the competition bowled out the New Zealanders for 165 runs and then notched up the required runs with seven wickets and 14 overs to spare.

Left handed opener Tharanga scored a splendid 56 from 77 balls with nine fours while skipper Mahela Jayawardena made 48 from 73 balls with six boundaries. The pair were associated in a second wicket stand of 89 runs which laid the platform for a convincing victory.

However both Tharanga and Jayawardena were back in the pavilion within the space of one run as leg spinner Jeetan Patel struck twice in the 27th over. This was after opener Sanath Jayasuriya had smashed 20 runs from 15 deliveries which included a glorious six over the extra cover fence from the bowling of paceman Shane Bond.

This victory also put the Lankans on par with Pakistan and New Zealand with all three teams having recorded one win each in group 'B'.

Sri Lanka of course recovered from a poor start and made amends during the latter stages while capturing wickets at regular intervals during the New Zealand innings. The two opening bowlers Chaminda Vaas and Lasith Malinga really struggled to find their rhythm and conceded too many extra runs during the first ten overs.

In fact Vaas finished off the innings just in the manner he started it where he gave away as many as 19 runs in his last over that helped New Zealand put up a decent score on the board at the end. This included three successive boundaries from the bat of Daniel Vettori who remained unbeaten on 46 from 53 balls.

His last wicket partnership with Jeetan Patel was worth 47 runs from 66 balls and they were just three runs away from equalling the all time ICC tournament record of fifty runs set up by another New Zealand pair of Kyle Mills and Shane Bond against Australia in 2002 at the SSC grounds in Colombo.

New Zealand also avoided the humiliation of being dismissed for their lowest total in the ICC Champions Trophy tournament where they were bundled out for just 132 runs against Australia at the SSC grounds in Colombo in 2002.

Earlier Muralitharan put the former joint champions right on top while capturing the wickets of Nathan Astle, Jacob Oram, Brendon McCullum and Kyle Mills during a tremendous spell of bowling. Even then the dismissal of Nathan Astle was probably the turning point of the game as the right hander looked like taking the Kiwis into a safe position.

Astle, 35 years old kept one end occupied with his solid defence and had struck six fours having made it to the crease as early as in the fifth over of the innings. He negotiated the Sri Lankan pacemen quite successfully and was just beginning to get on top the spinners when he departed for a well compiled 42 from 74 balls having occupied the crease until the 30th over.

The New Zealand innings simply crumbled from there onwards with Sanath Jayasuriya also stealing the limelight with two late wickets. Jayasuriya's performance was also quite outstanding considering the fact that he was playing as a main bowler after Sri Lanka included an extra batsman in place of Dilhara Fernando.

Even then the chief wrecker was the champion off spinner Muralitharan who with his four wicket haul came on par with West Indian M. Dillon as the highest wicket taker in the history of the ICC Champions Trophy with a tally of 19 victims. Muralitharan captured a wicket in his very first over where the New Zealand all rounder Jacob Oram was beaten probably by the best delivery of the innings.

Muralitharn then removed the dangerous Nathan Astle in the 30th over when the batsman miscued an attempted pull shot and was taken by Lasith Malinga fielding at mid wicket. The Lankans of course just could not complete their task after having captured the ninth wicket in the 39th over with the total on 118 runs.

The New Zealand last pair of Daniel Vettori and Jeetan Patel really put their heads down and batted well until the last over to give their side some hopes of pulling off another shock victory. (Mumbai, Friday).

NEW ZEALAND                                     
L. Vincent b Maharoof  				13
S. Fleming lbw b Vaas  				 0
N. Astle c Malinga b Muralitharan 		42
H. Marshall c Dilshan b Malinga 		 4
S. Styris c Sangakkara b Jayasuriya 		 3
J. Oram b Muralitharan 				 6
B. McCullum c M. Jayawardene b Muralitharan	 9
D. Vettori not out  				46
K. Mills lbw b Muralitharan  			 6
S. Bond c Sangakkara b Jayasuriya  		 1
J. Patel c M. Jayawardene b Malinga		10
Extras (lb-8 nb-7 w-10) 			25
TOTAL (all out, 49.2 overs) 			165
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-14 2-37 3-56 4-66 5-82 6-87 7-101 8-115 9-118 10-165
BOWLING: C. Vaas 10-1-41-1 (nb-6 w-4), L. Malinga 9.2-1-22-2 (w-3), 
F. Maharoof 8-0-34-1 (nb-1 w-1), S. Jayasuriya 10-0-26-2 (w-1), 
M. Muralitharan 10-1-23-4 (w-1), T. Dilshan 2-0-11-0.

          SRI LANKA

U. Tharanga st McCullum b Patel 	56
S. Jayasuriya c McCullum b Mills 	20
M. Jayawardene c Vettori b Patel 	48
K. Sangakkara not out 			19
M. Atapattu not out 			10
Extras (lb-1, nb-8, w-4) 		13
TOTAL (for three wkts, 36 overs) 	166
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-45 (Jayasuriya), 2-134 (Jayawardene), 3-135 (Tharanga).
BOWLING: Mills 5-0-24-1 (w2), Bond 7-0-46-0 (nb5, w2), 
Oram 4-0-14-0 (nb1), Vettori 10-0-45-0 (nb1), 
Patel 9-0-32-2 (nb1), Astle 1-0-4-0