PALLEKELE, Sri Lanka: Tillakaratne Dilshan, playing in his 250th one-day international, made light of a back injury to lead Sri Lanka to a seven-wicket victory over New Zealand under the Duckworth-Lewis method in another rain-hit match yesterday.
Former captain Dilshan suffered a sore back during the warm-up but still made an unbeaten 102 from 95 balls as the home side chased down a revised target of 197 with 11 balls to spare after Ross Taylor’s side scored 188 for six from 33 overs.
The home side appeared to be in difficulty at 73 for three in the 15th over when captain Mahela Jayawardene fell for five, miscuing a reverse sweep from the bowling of off-spinner Nathan McCullum to be caught by Jacob Oram at short third man.
But Dilshan stayed calm and together with Angelo Mathews, who made 54 from 47 balls, they added an unbroken 127 for the fourth wicket from 99 balls.
The win gave Sri Lanka an unbeatable 2-0 lead in the five-match series. They won game two by 14 runs, on Duckworth-Lewis, after the first match was washed.
“I had a small back pain in fielding practice before the toss and was probably 50 per cent at the start but I didn’t want to miss the match,” Dilshan said.
REUTERS
