SL through after Herath Hurricane

Sri Lanka left-arm spinner Rangana Herath celebrates one of his five wickets, which destroyed New Zealand and took the Lankans through to the ICC World Twenty20 semifinals, at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong yesterday. photo: afp

With Mahela Jayawardene at slip, a short-leg in place and the vicious turners coming off Rangana Herath, the second half of the match at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium last night in a way resembled the last innings of a Test match with the batting side struggling to bat on a five-day-old wicket.  
This was the setting that proved to be the turning point of a game which saw the mighty Sri Lankans --bowled out for a 119 -- post a comeback courtesy of Rangana Herath's career-best figures of 5 for 3 and storm into the semis with an 59-run win. The clueless Kiwis, who were restricted to 60 for nine --an injured Corey Anderson could not take the field -- did not know what hit them.
Having come into the tournament as favourites, a do-or-die battle against New Zealand this early in the tournament must have caused a few jitters in the Sri Lankan camp. In addition to that was the pressure of this match possibly being the last T20I for their legends Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene. And once they got bundled out for their lowest T20I score in the last one and a half years, it seemed as though the Lankans were on their way to an unexpected exit.
Herath, who was playing his first game of the tournament, stepped in in the fourth over and in a matter of half-an-hour changed the complexion of the game.
He first got Martin Guptill out with a smart piece of fielding to his own delivery. Brendon McCullum tried to take the attack to the bowler by coming down the track later that over, only for him to get stumped by a mile.
Ross Taylor came in with a mission to rebuild, but he proved to be as confused as the others and almost seemed to be teased by Herath's turners. He survived a close leg-before call in the fourth ball off the sixth over, but was trapped in the next.
Left-handed Jimmy Neesham was sent in with hopes of countering the left-arm spin but he was just bowled through his bat and pad. And after Luke Ronchi was trapped plumb in front in the eighth over, the celebrations had already begun. At 30 for five with three overs from Lasith Malinga left there was no way New Zealand were getting back from here.
Sachitra Senayanake got two more wickets in the flow after which Herath came back in the 15th over to finish things off with a five-for. His figures were the second best figures in T20 World Cups, and everyone was left asking where he was hiding all this while?  
Earlier, after electing to bowl first, New Zealand bowlers bowled back of a length throughout the innings and caused trouble. Trent Boult got the dangerous Kusal Perera caught down the leg side in the second over. Tillakaratne Dilshan followed next, while attempting a scoop while Sangakkara was held at mid off. At the end of the powerplay Sri Lanka struggled to 35 for three.
Mahela Jayawardene's 25 off 32 balls and Lahiru Thirimanne's 20 off 21 attempted a recovery midway through but they soon departed. A few lofty hits from Thisara Perera at the end helped them reach 119.