Rangana Herath sprung from Sri Lanka's dugout, watched his team-mates collapse, then crafted a Twenty20 spell of astounding quality to slam New Zealand into a wall, claiming five wickets for three runs, as Sri Lanka defended 119
10.35 pm So Sri Lanka have punched their ticket into the semi-final on the back of a dramatic collapse against spin by New Zealand. And because of this result it will be India facing South Africa in the second semi-final on Apirl 4. Thank you for your company today and this is Alagappan Muthu, hoping to see you all soon
"This pitch has been slow consistently," Lasith Malinga says, "I trusted my spinners. Herath was unbelievable. We were waiting for an occasion like this and we pulled through. Really lucky to have Angelo, Mahela and Dilshan to help me. they have good experience. Rangana was waiting for his chance and he proved himself really well. We have some other good spinners in Ajantha and Seekuge. We have a good opportunity with the turning wickets in Dhaka"
"We knew there was a lot of hard work to go,"Brendon McCullum says, "Knew we needed to be positive in the first six. It was a bit dry than we expected and Herath and Sachi, the way they bowled was outstanding. They blew us away with about eight wickets for some 10 runs. Wouldn't say there was extra pressure, it was a quarter-final anway. We just didn't adapt ourselves and played some mindless cricket. We took some poor option and as a result of that we're on the plane home"
Herath is the Man of the Match, duh. "What I realised was we needed wickets and I put the ball in the right place," he says. "Luckily the dew wasn't there but we had a bad game against England. Nothing was wrong today, no dew. Malinga was asking to what we can do, nothing more"
satya: "I will credit the 2 run outs to Herath as well......as it happened by brain fade caused by Herath" 10.25 pm Take a few minutes (or bang your head over it for hours) and read this. Herath 3.3-2-3-5! That too in a knockout scenario, after his batsmen had offered him a meagre target of 120. If there was any attack that could have defended it, it was Sri Lanka's and they've made yet another semi-final in a world tournament. Spare a thought for Kane Williamson though, he scored 42 of the 60 runs made by New Zealand...
TA Boult c Jayawardene b Herath 3 (10m 8b 0x4 0x6) SR: 37.50
McClenaghan is the final NZ batsman for today
KS Williamson run out 42 (69m 43b 6x4 0x6) SR: 97.67
Here he is again, Herath takes aim at the NZ tail
Atit: "2 Spinners: 6-2-5-6....any better combination in any form of cricket?"
No chance of Anderson batting
In high-pressure World T20 matches, these bowlers used their cunning to get the better of batsmen
In Chittagong, Rangana Herath lorded it over New Zealand's batsmen despite having only one variation to his stock delivery
One brought life to a dead rubber, the other gave a lesson in how not to play spin
After removing Sri Lanka for 119 it all looked set for New Zealand to book a semi-final place, but things were a little different in Chittagong's final match of the tournament
Rangana Herath sprung from Sri Lanka's dugout, watched his team-mates collapse, then crafted a Twenty20 spell of astounding quality to slam New Zealand into a wall, claiming five wickets for three runs, as Sri Lanka defended 119
| First Round Group A | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | M | W | L | PT | NRR |
| BAN | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1.466 |
| NEP | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0.933 |
| AFG | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | -0.981 |
| HKG | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | -1.455 |
| First Round Group B | |||||
| Team | M | W | L | PT | NRR |
| NED | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1.109 |
| ZIM | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0.957 |
| IRE | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | -0.701 |
| UAE | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | -1.541 |
| Group 1 | |||||
| Team | M | W | L | PT | NRR |
| SL | 4 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 2.233 |
| SA | 4 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 0.075 |
| NZ | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -0.678 |
| ENG | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | -0.776 |
| NED | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | -0.866 |
| Group 2 | |||||
| Team | M | W | L | PT | NRR |
| IND | 4 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 1.28 |
| WI | 4 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 1.971 |
| PAK | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -0.384 |
| AUS | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | -0.857 |
| BAN | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | -2.072 |
