NZ vs SL Match Result
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Sri Lanka136/10 (29.2 ov)
New Zealand won by 10 wickets
Kane Williamson(NZ captain):
"Great start, superb from the bowlers. I don't think there's a problem occasionally playing on such pitches. There was something on offer but it was slowish movement, if you were old school, who knows, you could've scored a few more. We were fortunate to get some early wickets. There's some variety in our attack, there are different wickets - some high-scoring, some like this, so we need to have a balanced attack. We didn't have too many conversations about net-run-rates, those two at the top (Guptill and Munro) are aggressive anyway. Nice that they could go out and play some few shots, Munro played with a freedom which was outstanding. It was a good all-around performance, the focus turns quickly to the next match in a few days time on a different surface."
Dimuth Karunaratne(SL captain): "136 is never going to be enough in these conditions. I and Thisara batted well, we needed to get partnerships. It was a good toss to win, sadly I lost it. It was seaming and swinging in the morning, so they had the advantage. They also had the bowlers to use it. Everyone comes out to watch entertaining cricket, so hopefully, we will get good batting wickets later on. I'm not sure the batters are low on confidence, batted well in practice games, trained hard. Need to think about our game and approach. We're trying to play our shots early, need to give ourselves a chance to get set and then score runs."
Matt Henry(3/29) is the Player of the Match: "Good to go out there on a green surface," he says. "You don't get too many one-day wickets like that (laughs). The warm-up game, I didn't try and let it affect me too much. This is a long tournament. Our fielders were brilliant today, it means a lot to our bowling attack. I enjoyed my time at Kent, had a lot of success with white and red-ball, always good to come back here to play cricket."
The last time a team batting first won an ODI game at the Sophia Gardens was back in 2017 during the Champions Trophy when Bangladesh defeated NZ. But they've bounced back from it.
After three consecutive ODI defeats at the Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, the Blackcaps finally seal a victory, and what a glorious one! =
New Zealand has started its World Cup 2019 campaign on a winning note. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has a long long way to go.
That's it. The game's over!
New Zealand has won by 10 wickets.
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