Match report: 1st ODI, December 26 2004 at Eden Park, Auckland by Jim Ellingham

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Scorecard:	New Zealand v Sri Lanka
Event:	Sri Lanka in New Zealand 2004/05

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DateLine: 13th March 2005

 

1st ODI, December 26 2004 at Eden Park, Auckland.

 

The New Zealand summer of international cricket got of to a great start in overcast conditions at Eden Park on Boxing Day. With the much anticipated return of Daryl Tuffey and overcast conditions as well as a typical early season New Zealand pitch, Stephen Fleming inserted the under prepared Srilankan tourists in front of a big festive crowd.

 

Before his 2004 season was ruined by for lapses caused by injury, Daryl Tuffey had an almost unflappable reputation over his ability to claim wickets in the opening over of a match. Here, Tuffey hit the seam and trapped the inexperienced Jayantha, LBW for a duck. Soon after Tuffey claimed the tourists dangerous captain caught behind by McCullum for 4 before Mills nabbed Sangakkara to have Srilanka reeling at 18/3. While all this was going on at one end, Srilanka's most experience batsman Jayasuriya was dangerously and a little luckily blasting his way to an unorthodox 43. This was beaten as top score by 48 from Dilshan. Dilshan became one of Cairns’ four victims as the all rounder once again found form with the ball in international cricket. Srilanka’s inadequate effort was ended when sub fieldsman Ian Butler brilliantly ran out Fernando.

 

New Zealand was forced to bat before lunch and in that time lost an out of sorts Astle. This brought Sinclair and Fleming together and this pair put on 57 runs and both made solid and steady progress before Sinclair spooned a catch back to leg-spinner Chandana. Sinclair’s dismissal was the queue for Fleming’s batting to notch up a gear and he ended up racing to 77 not out as the target was achieved after just 33 overs.

 

Srilanka 141 all out in 42 overs (S.Jayasuriya 43, T.Dilshan 48, D.Tuffey 8-2-17-2, C.Cairns 8-1-33-4) lost to NewZealand 144/3 in 33 overs (S.Fleming 77 not out, M.Sinclair 31, N.Kulasekara 8-3-13-0) by 7 wickets.

 

TSUNAMI TRAGEDY

 

Soon after this match the Srilankan team were shocked by the news of the tsunami that killed many people on the island. At first arrangements were made to reorganise the tour itinerary to allow the Srilankan team to mourn. However, when the full scale of the disaster became apparent the tour was abandoned for the time. New Zealand cricket have since rescheduled the test series but a window has not yet been found for the one-dayers.

 

From a cricket point of view the decision to abandon the tour cost New Zealand a chance of a number one world ranking in one-day cricket and an opportunity to play the World XI series next October in Australia. Some things though are more important then sport and it’s refreshing to see that at least New Zealand administrators see that even if the ICC aren’t always as understanding. The fact that they were even considering fining the Srilankan team for not ‘meeting their commitment’ shows this. Isn’t it time that the ICC put the game and the needs of cricketers before television revenue?

 

Srilanka’s rescheduled itinerary:
March 28-30: Warm-up First class match. Team and venue TBA.
April 4-8: 1st Test at McLean Park, Napier.
April 11-15: 2nd Test at Basin Reserve, Wellington.

 

(Article: Copyright © 2005 Jim Ellingham)