Centurion: After their heart-breaking defeat in the first match, South Africa would look to bring their campaign back on track when they clash against a diffident New Zealand at SuperSport Park here tomorrow.

The hosts lost by 55 runs to Sri Lanka yesterday but would take confidence from the fact that the Black Caps are coming into the event after a morale shattering Lankan tour.

The Kiwis lost their Test series in the Island nation and also failed to make the final of the tri-series, losing both the league matches. New Zealand have a decent attack, bolstered by return of Shane Bond, but have to overcome their batting woes.

They mostly depend on the trio of Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor who have been far from impressive in the recent past. Skipper Daniel Vettori has made contributions with the bat coming down the order but their main batters will have to make sure that it does not reach that stage that they are forced to look to the tail to rescue them.

Although South African bowlers struggled against Sri Lanka, they can fancy their chances against Kiwi batsmen. Tillakaratne Dilshan plundered runs at will against them and made Dale Steyn, who had confidently avowed that no team can beat them, eat his words.

Colombo, Sept. 11 — Saturday’s match against Sri Lanka becomes of only academic interest – and of this there is no shortage as India temporarily took the No 1 spot in the ICC ODI rankings. From an aesthetic point of view, though, what is even less edifying is watching quality batsmen struggle and ordinary bowlers sneaking wickets because of the pitch.

In a strangulated ODI where bowlers ruled, India got the better of New Zealand by six wickets, knocked the Kiwis out of the tournament and assured themselves of a place in the final.

Saturday’s match against Sri Lanka becomes of only academic interest – and of this there is no shortage as India temporarily took the No 1 spot in the ICC ODI rankings.

India, with 128 points are technically ahead of South Africa, who have 127, but to stay at pole when the rankings are officially announced in a week the men in blue have to ensure they don’t lose either of their two matches against Sri Lanka.

In the ICC’s complex method of determining points, India receive considerably less points for defeating New Zealand or Sri Lanka than would be the case if the result went the other way, on the basis that India are higher ranked than both.

None of this had any bearing on the play, though, as Daniel Vettori won a crucial toss and watched helplessly as his batsmen fluffed their lines. Jesse Ryder, Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Martin Guptill and Grant Elliott managed to do worse than in their opening game of the tournament, being reduced to 66 for 5 as opposed to Tuesday’s 69 for 5.

Ashish Nehra picked up three wickets to take his ODI tally past 100 and Yuvraj Singh winkled out as many with his loopy left-arm spin. In the end, New Zealand managed 155.

Dinesh Karthik was unlucky to be given out lbw to a ball that appeared to strike him high on the pad and be heading down leg. Rahul Dravid’s return seemed anything but auspicious as he struggled to get the ball away. After a tortured hour and five minutes that yielded 14 runs from 45 balls, Dravid failed to get bat to an attempted flick and was trapped in front by Jacob Oram.

Sachin Tendulkar (46), who had been largely purring along, working the ball off his toes with elan and piercing the off-side field with controlled cuts, was out to a soft dismissal, presenting Guptill at cover with the simplest of catches.

Yuvraj then sent the ball up in the air and was caught by Guptill. At 84 for 4 India’s top-order had done their bit to keep the game alive, but Dhoni (45 not out) and Suresh Raina (35 not out) kept their heads and walked India past the target.

Scoreboard:

New Zealand: B McCullum lbw b Nehra 3, J Ryder lbw b Nehra 0, M Guptill c Dravid b Yuvraj 22, R Taylor c Dhoni b RP 11, G Elliott c Dhoni b Yuvraj 22, J Oram c & b Ishant 24, N Broom c Raina b Yuvraj 21, D Vettori b Ishant 25, K Mills b RP 6, I Butler c Harbhajan b Nehra 6, S Bond not out 10

Extras (lb-4, w-1) 5

Total (all out; 46.3 overs) 155

Fall of wkts: 1-1, 2-4, 3-19, 4-51, 5-66, 6-101, 7-116, 8-134, 9-142, 155.

Bowling: Nehra 8.3-0-24-3, RP Singh 8-2-22-2, Ishant 10-2-26-2, Yuvraj 10-0-31-3, Harbhajan 8-0-39-0, Raina 1-0-4-0, Yusuf 1-0-5-0

India: D Karthik lbw b Mills 4, S Tendulkar c Guptill b Vettori 46, R Dravid lbw b Oram 14, Yuvraj Singh c Guptill b Vettori 8, MS Dhoni not out 35, S Raina not out 45

Extras (lb-3, w-1) 4

Total (for 4 wkts; 40.3 ovs) 156
Bowling: Mills 5.3-1-25-1, Bond 10-3-30-0, Butler 4-0-25-0, Vettori 10-0-33-2, Oram 7-1-19-1, Elliott 2-0-9-0, Guptill 2-0-12-0

Colombo, Sep 8 (IANS) The following is the scoreboard of the first ODI of the Compaq Cup between Sri Lanka and New Zealand at the Premedasa Stadium here Tuesday.

Sri Lanka:

Tillekaratne Dilshan b Tuffey 4

Sanath Jayasuriya c Butler b Bond 7

Mahela Jayawardene c Taylor b Bond 0

Kumar Sangakkara c Oram b Butler 18

Thilan Samaraweera b Butler 104

Thilina Kandamby c Taylor b Vettori 15

Angelo Mathews b Bond 51

Nuwan Kulasekara not out 6

Thilan Thushara not out 6

Extras (lb 3, w 2) 5

Total (for seven wickets in 50 overs) 216

Fall of wickets: 1-4 (Dilshan, 0.6 overs), 2-5 (Jayawardene, 1.4), 3-22 (Jayasuriya, 7.4), 4-38 (Sangakkara, 15.5), 5-69 (Kandamby, 25.3), 6-196 (Mathews, 47.5), 7-204 (Samaraweera, 48.5)

Bowling:

Daryl Tuffey 9 0 35 1

Shane Bond 10 2 43 3

Ian Butler 10 1 55 2

Jacob Oram 6 0 22 0

Daniel Vettori 8 0 31 1

Nathan McCullum 7 1 27 0

New Zealand:

Brendan McCullum b Malinga 14

Jesse Ryder lbw Thushara 0

Martin Guptill c Sangakkara b Kulasekara 3

Ross Taylor lbw b Kulasekara 2

Grant Elliott b Jayasuriya 41

Jacob Oram c Sangakkara b Malinga 4

Nathan McCullum b Malinga 0

Daniel Vettori lbw Jayasuriya 10

Ian Butler b Malinga 25

Daniel Tuffey run out (Sangakkara) 2

Shane Bond not out 1

Extras (b 6, lb 1, w 10) 17

Total (all out; 36.1 overs) 119 (3.29 runs per over)

Fall of wickets: 1-2 (Ryder, 1.2 overs), 2-5 (Guptill, 4.1), 3-7 (Taylor, 4.5), 4-37 (Brendan, 18.2), 5-41 (Oram, 18.5), 6-41 (Nathan, 18.6), 7-76 (Vettori, 26.3), 8-101 (Elliott, 32.1), 9-116 (Tuffey, 35.3), 10-119 (Butler, 36.1)

Bowling:

Nuwan Kulasekara 6 1 18 2

Thilan Thushara 6 1 5 1

Ajantha Mendis 7 1 14 0

Lasith Malinga 6.1 0 28 4

Angelo Mathews 5 0 19 0

Sanath Jayasuriya 6 0 28 2

Toss: Sri Lanka, who chose to bat

Result: Sri Lanka won by 97 runs

Umpires: Asoka de Silva (Sri Lanka) and Billy Doctrove (West Indies)

TV umpire: Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka)

Match referee: Chris Broad (England)

Dubai, Sep.7 (ANI): India has a chance to claim the number one spot in the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Championship when it turns out for the tri-nation series involving host Sri Lanka and New Zealand.

The series begins at the R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo from Tuesday.

India trails number-one ranked South Africa by just one rating point, but if it wins all the three matches (including the final), it will gain two ratings points which will put it in number one position for the first time since the rankings were introduced in October 2002.

However, if India loses one match in the tournament, it will stay on 126 ratings points while defeat in two matches will drop it to 123 ratings points.

There is plenty at stake for Sri Lanka and New Zealand as well in the forthcoming series.

Daniel Vettori’s side can narrow the gap with the third-placed side if it finishes unbeaten in the series as in this case it will rise to 119 ratings points. Kumar Sangakkara’s side will also gain six ratings points if it makes a clean sweep in front of its own supporters.

Sri Lanka has been a hard team to beat on its home turf. While India leads Sri Lanka 59-42 in head-to-head records, Sri Lanka has won 22 matches and lost 16 to India in the previous 42 encounters between the two sides in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka has also dominated New Zealand when playing in its territory, having won 10 out of 16 matches with one no-result. Overall, New Zealand narrowly leads Sri Lanka 34-30.

Meanwhile, England has dropped two places to sixth after slumping to defeat in the opening two ODIs against Australia in London. Australia won the opener at The Oval by four runs and then doubled the lead at Lord’s where it won by 39 runs.

As such, Australia has climbed to 123 ratings points after gaining four ratings points while England has slipped from fourth to sixth place.

However, England can still move ahead of Australia if it wins the remaining five matches in the series. On the other side of the coin, if Australia maintains its winning spree and claims the series 7-0 it will jump to128 ratings points while England will slide to 101 ratings points.

In the Reliance Mobile ICC ODI Player Rankings for ODI batsmen, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and vice-captain Yuvraj Singh renew their battle for the number-one spot. At present, Dhoni leads Yuvraj but the rankings can be reversed if Dhoni struggles and Yuvraj shines with the bat.

Besides Dhoni and Yuvraj, India boasts two more batsmen inside the top 20. Little master Sachin Tendulkar occupies 12th position with a place in the top 10 well within his sights while opener Gautam Gambhir shares 17th spot with New Zealand’s Ross Taylor.

Sangakkara is the only Sri Lanka batsman inside the top 20, sitting just outside the top 10 in 11th position. Mahela Jayawardena is in 30th position while Tillekeratne Dilshan is 32nd.

In the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers, Sri Lanka’s Nuwan Kulasekara is feeling the pressure from New Zealand duo of Kyle Mills and Daniel Vettori. With only 36 points separating Kulasekara from Vettori, a change at the top of the order looks inevitable.

Sri Lanka also has Muttiah Muralidaran inside the top 20 in fifth position while Ajantha Mendis is in 12th spot while 23rd placed Harbhajan Singh is the highest-ranked India bowler in the absence of 16th placed Zaheer Khan. Jacob Oram is the other bowler from the three sides to figure inside the top 20 in 17th spot.

Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh leads the Reliance Mobile ICC Player Rankings for ODI all-rounders. Oram is in third position while Yuvraj Singh is in fifth position, just five points behind. Sri Lanka’s highest-ranked all-rounder is Sanath Jayasuriya in 12th spot. (ANI)

New Zealand goes into Tuesday’s limited-over tri-series opener against Sri Lanka as a a resurgent side after its convincing 2-0 series win in the Twenty20 series.

“We are happy with our performances in the Twenty20 after a disappointing test series,” captain Daniel Vettori said at a news conference in Colombo on Monday.

“Surely we’ll take the good things out of Twenty20, still this is a different form of the game. We need to be up there with other teams.”

Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara wants his batsmen to improve to put up a better show when the series begins at R.Premedasa Stadium.

“We have to get our batting unit to fire. It’s something we’ve been working on,” he said adding that it is the bowlers who have saved the team a number of times.

India is the third side in the short four-match series and the team is scheduled to arrive Wednesday and play two back to back matches on Friday and Saturday.

It last played a four-match limited-overs series against the West Indies last July winning it 2-1 with one match abandoned because of rain.

Related Matches:

1. SL vs NZ, 2nd Sep 2009

New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori won the toss and elected to bat first on Wednesday in the first Twenty20 International against Sri Lanka at R.Premadasa Stadium.

Sri Lanka, which won the test series 2-0, goes into the match without strike bowlers Muttiah Muralitharan and Thilan Thushara because of injuries.

Gihan Rupasinghe, a 23-year-old allrounder makes his debut for the hosts.

Seamer Shane Bond returns to play for New Zealand after two years of not being considered for selection because he played in the unsanctioned Indian Cricket League.

He is now available to be picked after breaking his ties to the ICL.

___

Teams:

Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakkara (captain), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Jayawardene, Chamara Kapugedera, Angelo Mathews, Gihan Rupasinghe, Malinga Bandara, Nuwan Kulasekera, Lasith Malinga, Ajantha Mendis.

New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (captain), Shane Bond, Neil Broom, Brendon McCullum, Ian Butler, Martin Guptill, Peter McGlashan, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder, Ross Taylor.

Umpires: Asoka de Silva, Sri Lanka and Kumar Dharmasena, Sri Lanka.

TV Umpire: Gamini Silva, Sri Lanka. Match Referee: Andy Pycroft, Zimbabwe.

He has always been one of the most under rated and unheralded spin bowlers in world cricket. As a batsman he belonged to the tail ender class when he first started out as the youngest player to represent New Zealand. But over the years, Daniel Vettori has transformed himself into a world class cricketer, an all-rounder of considerable merit and a respected skipper of the national side.

Related Matches:

1. SL vs NZ, 26th Aug 2009

COLOMBO (Reuters) – New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori recorded his highest test score with a defiant 140 on Sunday but was unable to prevent Sri Lanka winning the second test by 96 runs to wrap up the series 2-0.

Vettori, his team’s highest run scorer in the series, showed the discipline and patience that had been lacking from his top order colleagues to bat through two sessions on the fifth day.

He struck 16 boundaries from 189 balls and added 124 with all-rounder Jacob Oram (56) and a further 69 with number 10 Iain O’Brien (12).

However, New Zealand, who started the day on 182 for six chasing an improbable 494 for victory, were eventually bowled out for 397 in 123.5 overs just before the tea interval.

Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath led the Sri Lanka bowling with veteran Muttiah Muralitharan struggling with a groin injury. Herath finished with five for 139 from 48 overs in the innings and a match haul of eight for 209.

Muralitharan, who is now a major injury doubt for the two Twenty20 internationals this week, also played his part with three for 85 from 26.2 overs.

Vettori’s hundred, the fourth of his career, helped New Zealand set a record for the highest fourth innings score on Sri Lanka soil.

Sri Lanka were expected to wrap up their fourth win in five home tests this summer in the first session but Vettori and Oram held the bowlers at bay in the highest stand of the series for New Zealand.

It turned out to be a frustrating morning for the hosts as several chances were missed, including a sharp slip chance off Vettori that flew to the right of Mahela Jayawardene at second slip.

Dammika Prasad, the bowler who found Vettori’s outside edge during a fine spell, was also denied an lbw decision against Oram in his next over.

Herath added to the home team’s woes when he dropped a throw at the non-striker’s end to squander a clear runout chance.

To make matters worse for Sri Lanka, Muralitharan broke down with suspected groin strain. The off-spinner hobbled off the field in the middle of his 21st over.

However, part-time spinner Tillakaratne Dilshan broke through in the penultimate over of the morning as Oram mistimed a drive to Kumar Sangakkara at short cover.

Oram had scored a diligent 56 from 148 balls with five boundaries, his best score of the series.

Muralitharan did return in the afternoon, despite being visibly troubled by the injury, to bowl a five-over spell that included the wicket of Jeetan Patel (12), who was caught at bat-pad while trying to sweep.

Colombo, Aug 30(ANI): Former New Zealand cricketer Stephen Boock reckons that captain Daniel Vettori is one of the cleverest finger spinners to grace the cricketing world.

“Everyone knows what Dan bowls: little spinners that turn away [from the right-hander] or ones that skid through, that’s the guts of it. There’s no secrets in his armoury but the way he uses what he’s got is the best I’ve seen,” Boock told the Sunday Star-Times.

“What you’ve got to do is be able to read the wicket and work out what is about this wicket that will give me the best result. How fast should I bowl, how much effort should I put into turning he ball. Dan either does that naturally or by learning,” he added.

Speaking after Vettori double feat of 3000 runs and 300 wickets, Boock said Vettori’s intelligence as a bowler was without peer, as he possessed the ability to figure up the pitch in order to adjust his bowling pace and spin to get the best results, Stuff.co.nz reports.

“Dan’s not a flamboyant player, but he’s a clear thinker who has a good understanding of cricket and he will have no expectation that he will be treated as a movie star because that’s not what he is: he’s a spin bowler who works very hard,” Boock said.

He further said that if Vettori keeps on playing for another four-five years, he could go beyond Sir Richard Hadlee as New Zealand’s wicket-taker and could join Kapil Dev. (ANI)

A cricketer with a modest record suddenly touches greatness or at least becomes a most talked about player, thanks to a change in approach or style. This is verily the story of Tillakaratne Dilshan.

Seen more as a limited overs cricketer thanks to his utility qualities he was not exactly a regular in the Test squad. Now, suddenly, he has turned out to be one of those cricketers who are cynosures.

Even in a Sri Lankan side choc-a-bloc with stroke players and fast scorers, Dilshan stands out and these days his batting style is being compared with Virender Sehwag’s. For once, this is not an uncalled for comparison. Dilshan is matching the Indiana Jones of Indian cricket in thrilling strokes and run production.

So much so that New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori singled out Dilshan’s ruthless performance with the bat as the key factor behind his team’s 202-run defeat in the first Test at Galle.

Dilshan, promoted to open the innings for the first time in Tests, raced to 92 off 72 balls in the first innings. Then, in the second innings when runs were needed quickly so that Kumar Sangakkara could set New Zealand a challenging target Dilshan again was to the fore hitting an unbeaten 123 off just 131 balls – just the kind of batting that the Lankans required.

The manner in which Dilshan flayed the bowling, it became an uneven contest something that Vettori admitted while handing out plaudits to Dilshan. “See how well Dilshan played forcing us to bowl badly and you will understand that his batting was the real defining moments throughout the game,” said the New Zealand skipper.

If any proof is required of Dilshan’s advance it is provided by figures. In his first 21 Tests he scored 951 runs at an average of 31.70, a strike rate of fractionally over 49 with three hundreds and two half centuries. In the next 35 Tests he has scored 2430 runs at an average of fractionally under 50 and a strike rate of over 72 with six hundreds and eleven half centuries.

These telling stats underline why Dilshan is now an important member of the Lankan team in the longer version of the game too. He has always been a batsman who prefers aggression over defence, but of late that preference has become much more pronounced.

Dilshan was always a key member of the ODI squad ever since he made his debut a decade ago. His attacking batsmanship whether at the top of the order or in the middle, his usefulness as an off break bowler and his electrifying fielding at the pivotal point position marked him out as one of the outstanding limited overs cricket in the game.

Again the statistics will confirm the exalted status he enjoys. A tally of almost 3500 runs from 137 innings at an average of fractionally over 31 and a healthy strike rate of virtually 82 with two hundreds and 16 half centuries clearly illustrate his utility value to the side. But the ambitious 32-year-old Dilshan always wanted to excel in Test cricket too.

He actually burst into prominence pretty early by scoring an unbeaten 163 in only his second Test innings against Zimbabwe in November 1999. But after that bright start he had to endure an extended period of frustration as he was pushed up and down the order. He took all this in his stride and in 2003-04 had successive scores of 63, 100, 83 and 104 in Tests against England and Australia. The runs and the occasional wickets continued to be notched up against Dilshan’s name.

In 2005, he took the Bangladesh attack apart scoring 168 off just 179 balls, but just to show that he could get hundreds against tougher opposition too, he hammered the Indian bowlers three years later getting an unbeaten 125 from 170 deliveries. The attack comprised Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh but Dilshan showed scant respect and batted with gay abandon.

But, he certainly has a partiality for Bangladesh bowling and in January this year enjoyed himself hugely at Chittagong hitting 162 off 165 balls and then following it up in the second innings with 143 from 175 balls. The fairy tale was not over for he then finished off the match in double quick time taking four for 10 with his under rated off breaks. A couple of months later he was mowing down a much stronger Pakistan attack at Lahore in hammering 145 off 170 balls treating Umar Gul, Danish Kaneria and Shoaib Malik with disdain.

It was obvious that a dynamic cricketer like Dilshan would take naturally to the Twenty20 game and he excelled in the World Cup in England in June, picking up the Player of the Series award after scoring 317 runs at an average of almost 53.

His sparkling form had much to do with Sri Lanka finishing runners up and he created a sensation by coming out with the game’s latest invention – an astonishing flick shot over his head that was nicknamed ‘The Dilly scoop’. There is always an element of risk involved with such unorthodox strokes but Dilshan was amazingly consistent and the stroke became the talk of the cricket world. At the moment Dilshan is savouring his success story.