Spinners and Bates combine to give New Zealand 1-0 lead
New Zealand’s spinners Eden Carson, Amelia Kerr and Leigh Kaperek combined to take six wickets and restrict Sri Lanka to 106 for 9 to set up a five-wicket win in the opening T20I of the three-match series in Colombo.
Opener Suzie Bates and No. 3 Kerr then knocked off 78 runs between them from the 107-run target to ensure New Zealand had scored enough before a middle-order stutter to win with seven balls to spare.
Brief scores:
New Zealand 107 for 5 (Suzie Bates 44, Amelia Kerr 34, Georgia Plimmer 16*; Udeshika Prabodhani 1-14, Kavisha Dilhari 1-17 Inoshi Priyadharshani 3-17) beat Sri Lanka 106 for 9 in 20 overs (Vishmi Gunaratne 26, Harshitha Samarawickrama 12, Nilakshi de Silva 12, Kavisha dilhari 10, Anushka Sanjeewani 18, Oshadie Ranasinghe 18; Amelia Kerr 2-18, Carson 2-20, Eden Carson 2-20, Leigh Kasperek 2-21, ) by five wickets