Some crazy scens were witnessed in the first ODI between New Zealand and Sri Lanka on Saturday. While it was the home side that emerged triumphant in the opener, winning the contest by a whopping 198 runs, they did ride their luck at times. During one of the incidents, New Zealand batter Fin Allen found himself incredibly lucky as a delivery from Kasun Rajitha hit his off-stump at full swing, yet the bails remained undisturbed. The Sri Lanka team, the batter and even the commentators were left stunned.
Allen was batting on 9 runs when the incident took place. Having seen the cricketing gods grant him a lifeline, the batter went on to score a half-century later in the game.
Here’s the video of the incident:
Crazy! The bails didn’t come off
Watch BLACKCAPS v Sri Lanka live and on-demand on Spark Sport#SparkSport #NZvSL pic.twitter.com/JMHodjHjJl
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As for the match, New Zealand put a total of 274 runs on the board while batting first. Chasing the target of 275 runs, Sri Lanka were bowled out for a paltry score of 76 runs.
Playing just his fourth match for the Black Caps, tall seamer Henry Shipley took 5-31 as the tourists were skittled for 76 at Eden Park, their lowest ODI score against New Zealand and their fifth-lowest ever.
Sri Lanka’s capitulation in 19.5 overs made it their second shortest innings.
The visitors never recovered after slumping to 31-5, with only three batters reaching double figures, including top scorer Angelo Mathews (18).
It comes just two months after Sri Lanka’s world-record 317-run loss to India in Thiruvananthapuram — when they were out for 73.
Captain Dasun Shanaka identified some glaring shortcomings that would need to be improved on for game two in Christchurch on Tuesday.
“Especially with the bat, we need to tighten up the techniques,” Shanaka said.
“The way Shipley bowled, the movement he got and the bounce, I think all sorts of things happened tonight. Credit should be given to Shipley, it’s outstanding bowling,” he said.
With AFP inputs
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