New Zealand’s spinners Eden Carson, Amelia Kerr and Leigh Kaperek combined to take six wickets and restrict Sri Lanka to 106 for 9 to set up a five-wicket win in the opening T20I of the three-match series in Colombo.
Opener Suzie Bates and No. 3 Kerr then knocked off 78 runs between them from the 107-run target to ensure New Zealand had scored enough before a middle-order stutter to win with seven balls to spare.
New Zealand cashed in on their decision to bowl by getting the big fish Chamari Athapaththu first ball, castled by offspinner Carson. The second-wicket stand of 37 between Vishmi Gunaratne and Harshitha Samarawickrama was the only good sign for the hosts before Kerr took a return-catch to send Gunaratne back for 26. Sri Lanka never recovered from that and lost five wickets for just 35 runs to stumble to 72 for 6 in the 15th over. Returning to T20 internationals after nearly two years, offspinner Kasperek had Samarawickrama stumped and trapped Kavisha Dilhari lbw to finish with 2 for 21.
Anushka Sanjeewani and Oshadi Ranasinghe revived Sri Lanka’s innings briefly by stitching a stand of 29 for the seventh wicket to take them past 100 but Sanjeewani’s run out broke the partnership before Kerr ran out Udeshika Prabodhani and took Ranasinghe’s return-catch as well, on the last ball of the innings, to finish with 2 for 18. New Zealand had used as many as eight bowling options.
The visitors lost Bernadine Bezuidenhout early in the chase before Bates and Kerr put them in command with a 58-run stand, scoring 44 and 34 respectively. New Zealand withstood a wobble when offspinner Inoshi Priyadarshani struck twice in three balls and then in her next over as well to send back Kerr, Sophie Devine for a duck and Maddy Green for 5. With 30 required off 38 balls, New Zealand were still in command and Bates nearly took them all the way home before falling for 44. Georgia Plimmer knocked off the winning runs not long after.
Brief scores:
New Zealand 107 for 5 (Suzie Bates 44, Amelia Kerr 34, Georgia Plimmer 16*; Udeshika Prabodhani 1-14, Kavisha Dilhari 1-17 Inoshi Priyadharshani 3-17) beat Sri Lanka 106 for 9 in 20 overs (Vishmi Gunaratne 26, Harshitha Samarawickrama 12, Nilakshi de Silva 12, Kavisha dilhari 10, Anushka Sanjeewani 18, Oshadie Ranasinghe 18; Amelia Kerr 2-18, Carson 2-20, Eden Carson 2-20, Leigh Kasperek 2-21, ) by five wickets
