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Sri Lanka bowler Rangana Herath (L) celebrates the team’s victory over New Zealand with teammates during the ICC World Twenty20 tournament cricket match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka at The Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong on March 31, 2014.
Chasing only 120 runs to win, New Zealand were bowled out for just 60 runs at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong, courtesy of a magical spell from left-arm spinner Rangana Herath, who ended the match with astonishing figures of 3.3-2-3-5. As a result, Sri Lanka have qualified for the semi-finals, while New Zealand have no option but to to take a long flight back home.
In case you wonder which one of them is the wickets column, it is the last one: coming into bowl the 4th over, he absolutely demolished the Kiwi top order, picking up the key wickets of Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor and Jimmy Neesham.
The other two scalps included Luke Ronchi and Trent Boult. Unlike the Aussies against India, the Kiwis did not get out attempting wild slogs; it is just that they simply had no answer to his spinning deliveries, getting beaten on defence. Not surprisingly, this is currently the world record for the most economical spell ever in the history of T20 internationals (for bowlers who have taken a minimum of 2 wickets).
Earlier, Sri Lankans, getting bowled out for 119 in 19.2 overs, had a disastrous start to the match. Trent Boult and Jimmy Neesham picked up 3 wickets each. None of the Sri Lankan batsmen were able to get past 25 runs.
It looked all but over for the Lankans, but luckily the absence of dew helped Herath grip the ball and extract enough turn to leave the New Zealand batsmen flummoxed. Kane Williamson was terrific with bat, scoring a 43-ball 42 and showing his expertise on difficult subcontinental wickets for the nth time now.
Here is the list of 5 top spells in terms of bowling average:
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