Rains plays spoilsport once again by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Ground:	Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, Dambulla
Scorecard:	Sri Lanka v New Zealand
Player:	DPMD Jayawardene, SB Styris
Event:	Sri Lanka Tri Series 2010

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DateLine: 20th August 2010

 

Since the rains prevented any action from happening yesterday the match was replayed today. For about 80 percent of the Lankan innings one thought that a full match would take place. But at around the 44th over of the Lankan innings it began to rain forcing the players and the umpires off the ground. The match officials waited for long for the rain to go away but without any luck. After waiting for long the match was called off.

 

With dark clouds hovering around Ross Taylor elected to field first believing that his bowlers would utilise the conditions well. But Dilshan had other ideas. Only against New Zealand he has so far failed to register a half century in his ODI career. For the first time it seemed that he was going to change that trend. Boundaries flew from his bat at regular intervals and the Kiwi bowlers looked rattled. It seemed that the Lankans would post a huge score but then Tuffey struck for Kiwis to slow down the things. Tharanga mistimed a pull to short fine leg as the Lankans lost their first wicket.

 

Dilshan was then joined by Sangakkara in the middle and the duo consolidated the innings. Scott Styris was introduced to create a breakthrough and that was just what he did. A good length delivery from Styris kept very low and that cleaned up Dilshan and the Kiwis slowly crawled back into the contest. Sangakkara and Jayawardene added 56 runs for the third wicket in 14.3 overs a partnership that was based on some well stolen singles. Boundaries came but not in torrent to put extra pressure on the Kiwis and soon the scoring stagnated. Styris once again was in the thick of the action as he removed Sangakkara via a brilliant catch from Nathan McCullum. at short covers.

 

Once again the innings needed to be consolidated and it was left to Jayawardene and Chamara de Silva. The pair consolidated and then began to up the ante in the final overs when the rains came in. The players were ushered into the pavilion and the umpires waited for the rain to go away. The rains failed to go away and the play was abandoned.