Final Twenty20 game against Kiwis today:

Lankans looking to bounce back

Chris Dhambarage

A stunned Sri Lankan team will be hoping to bounce back and redeem lost prestige when they take on New Zealand in the second and final Twenty20 International under lights at the R. Premadasa Stadium today.

The Lankans who went in as the clear favourites after their two nil whitewash in the Test series fell short by just three runs in the first Twenty20 match played at the same venue on Wednesday.

This was in fact the closest Sri Lanka had come to winning a Twenty20 match on home soil after having failed twice against India and Pakistan respectively even though they emerged runners up at the ICC World Cup in England in June.

Sri Lanka will be looking to produce an improved performance as it could be a tremendous morale booster ahead of the up coming Tri Series limited overs tournament also involving India.

In contrast New Zealand will take the field brimming with confidence after having notched up their first win on tour from four games. They certainly confirmed that the side is best suited to this type of cricket with Jacob Oram leading the way.

The dynamic all rounder was able to create a piece of record by capturing only the second hat-trick in Twenty20 cricket after Australia's Bret Lee performed a similar feat against Bangladesh in the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa.

Oram's performance was even more significant considering the fact that he was under tremendous pressure as he was called into bowl the last over with Sri Lanka needing nine runs with three wickets in hand.

The tall all rounder dismissed Malinga Bandara and Nuwan Kulasekera from the first two deliveries and conceded only five runs in that over having earlier snapped up a return catch off Angelo Matthews with the last ball of his third over, the 17th of the innings.

The only consolation for Sri Lanka was the dazzling batting of opener Tillekeratne Dilshan who will be hoping for a repeat performance. However a lot will depend on the middle order batting which failed to deliver in the previous game.

The teams: Sri Lanka (from): Kumar Sangakkara (captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardena, Mahela Udawatte, Chamara Kapugedera, Gihan Rupasinghe, Angelo Matthews, Isuru Udana, Thilan Thushara, Nuwan Kulasekera, Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Malinga Bandara and Farveez Maharoof.

New Zealand (from): Daniel Vettori (captain), Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Martin Guptil, Ross Taylor, Jacob Oram, Neil Broom, Grant Elliott, Nathan McCullum, Peter McGlashan, Ian Butler, Shane Bond, Kyle Mills, Jeetan Patel.