ICC World Cup: Boult, Santner help New Zealand bowl out Sri Lanka for 171
Bengaluru, Nov 9: Trent Boult rediscovered his magic with the new ball and Mitchell Santner skilfully exploited the slight grip on offer as New Zealand bundled out Sri Lanka for 171 in their crucial World Cup match here on Thursday.
Having logged eight points, the Kiwis need to win their last league match against the Lankans to stay alive in the race to join India, South Africa and Australia in the semifinals.
Accordingly, they produced a forceful effort through left-arm pacer Boult (3/37) and left-arm spinner Santner (2/22) after electing to field.
Opener Kusal Perera, who was dropped on 1 by stumper Tom Latham off Tim Southee, made a belligerent 51 off 28 balls, a mere footnote in an otherwise shambolic batting effort.
Boult, however, owned the noon in his inimitable fashion.
The 35-year-old was struggling for his rhythm in the last couple of matches, but he revealed his true colours with a bit of nip in the air, jagging the ball around.
After Southee jettisoned Pathum Nissanka, Boult dismissed Lankan captain Kusal Mendis, whose mistimed pull ended with Rachin Ravindra near square leg, in the first ball of the fifth over.
Three balls later, Boult angled one across in-form Sadeera Samarawickrama, and the indecisive right-hander nibbled it to Latham.
A couple of overs later, Boult trapped Charith Asalanka in front of the wicket with one that came wee bit in to reduce Lanka to 70 for four.
Angelo Matthews and Dhananjaya de Silva could not negate Santner's accuracy and the deliveries that spun away from them, perishing cheaply, effectively signalling the end of the Lankan fight.
However, while the Lankan castle was crumbling around him Perera played a gem of an innings.
Perera's batting is so reminiscent of his idol Sanath Jayasuriya short back-lift and a woodcutter's forearms sending the ball miles away.
But Perera had not made the kind of impact expected of him, making just one fifty against Australia in the tournament and failing to reach double digits in five other innings prior to this day.
However, the left-hander, who was dropped on 1 by stumper Tom Latham off Tim Southee, was in his element here and creamed Kiwis bowlers around the park.
Perera made Southee suffer as well. He extracted 18 runs off the pacer's third over, innings' sixth, through a sequence of 6, 4, 4, 4, 4.
The pick-up six off his legs over long-on and the drive past the point fielder were the standout shots in that series.
Perera soon reached his 17th ODI fifty, second of this tournament, with another cracking cover drive off returning pacer Lockie Ferguson.
But the fun ended soon as Ferguson had the last laugh an attempted loft over the covers ended in the hands of Santner.
Ferguson, who pinged Maheesh Theekshana on his arm, returned to rattle the late-order batsmen with his high pace, to add a couple of more wickets.
Theekshana and Dilshan Madhushanke added 43 runs for the final wicket, the highest in the Lankan essay, but they ended up with a vastly under-par total.
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Andhra Pradesh: Four children die of suffocation after getting locked in parked car
Vizianagaram: In a devastating incident that has shocked the local community, four children died of asphyxiation on Sunday after accidentally getting locked inside a parked car in Andhra Pradesh’s Dwarapudi village of Vizianagaram rural mandal.
The children, identified as Mangi Uday (8), Burle Charumathi (8), Burle Charishma (6), and Kandi Manaswini (6), were playing in the village when they entered an unattended vehicle to take shelter from the rain. Tragically, the car door locked behind them, trapping them inside without ventilation, as reported by The New Indian Express.
The car had reportedly been left near the Mahila Mandali office by an unidentified individual two days earlier. The vehicle remained unattended, and it is believed the doors were not properly secured, allowing the children to enter unnoticed.
As the children failed to return home by evening, their families began searching for them across the village and surrounding areas. After more than three hours of searching, the children were found unconscious inside the car. The windows were broken in an attempt to rescue them, but all four had already succumbed to asphyxiation due to extreme heat and lack of oxygen inside the vehicle, added the report.
The bodies were rushed to the Government General Hospital (GGH) in Vizianagaram, where doctors confirmed that the cause of death was suffocation.
Local police have launched an investigation to trace the owner of the vehicle.
Vizianagaram MLA Aditi Vijayalaxmi visited the grieving families at the hospital and expressed her condolences. She assured that all necessary assistance would be provided to the families of the deceased children.
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