SI Cricket Talks
Sri Lanka tour of New Zealand
by Shazeen Ifamy
A few months ago, the Sri Lankan men’s cricket team embarked on a full formant cricket tour to New Zealand aiming to secure a spot in the ICC World Test Championship finals 2023 and direct qualification to the ICC ODI World Cup 2023. As a result of this, the Sri Lankan team left for New Zealand with plenty of goals but unfortunately couldn’t achieve any of them as ultimately New Zealand won the test, ODI, and T20I series and was the team that came out in colours! With that said, shall we take a closer analysis of how the tour went? Let’s go!
The tour began with the all-important two-match test series in which Sri Lanka surprisingly put up a great fight in a bid to secure an ICC World Test Championship final spot but New Zealand’s experience was too much for the Lankans as they lost the series two to none. If you wish to know more about the test series you may read our articles covering it using the links below:
Preview:
Conclusion:
Moving on, the limited-overs legs of the tour didn’t provide any joy for Sri Lankans as they failed to put any sort of fight in the ODIs as they lost the three-match series by two to none with one match being rained out. That said, the series scoreline is valid as New Zealand were simply the better team as the Lankans couldn’t even put up 200+ runs on the board nor bat the full 50 overs.
Lastly, the T20 series provided some joy for the Lankans as they were finally able to win a match in the tour as they won the thrilling first T20I through a super over. However, that said, the joy of the Lankans didn’t last long as they went on to close the second and third T20I hence losing the series once again but this time avoided a whitewash, one of the few bright lights for the Sri Lankans during the tour.
Overall, the tour wasn’t an ideal one for the Sri Lankans as they failed to achieve their goals. On the other hand, New Zealand will be incredibly happy with their performance as they were able to win all three series and extend their dominant home run against the Sri Lankans. In conclusion, congratulations to New Zealand and tough luck to the Sri Lankans.
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