New Zealand cricket team has been in the headlines since coming to India and giving a historic 3-0 defeat to Team India in the Test series. After all, defeating Team India on its own ground is not an easy task and New Zealand made a clean sweep. But within just a week of this victory, the Kiwi team itself faced defeat. After the victory in India, the Kiwi team has gone on a tour of Sri Lanka and here it started with a defeat. However, he got this defeat in T20 format. In the first match of the T20 series, Sri Lanka defeated New Zealand by 4 wickets without any special problems and took a 1-0 lead in the series.

After defeating Team India in the Test series, the Kiwi team again returned to Sri Lanka, where they had come for the Test series before the India tour and lost 0-2. This time the match is of T20 series but many players of the team that defeated India are not part of this series and some new players have got place. In such a situation, there was a possibility that there would be a difference in the performance of the Kiwi team and that is what happened. Along with batting, the team looked breathless in bowling also and Sri Lanka registered victory.

Kiwi batting failed in front of all-round bowling.

In the first T20 match played in Dambulla on Saturday 9th November, the challenge for the batsmen to score runs was clearly visible. New Zealand, captained by Mitchell Santner, batted first but in front of Sri Lanka's all-round bowling, the entire team collapsed for just 135 runs in 19.3 overs. For his part, 22-year-old bowler Zakari Fox, playing only his third T20 International match, showed his strength with the bat and coming in at number 9, scored the maximum of 27 runs in just 16 balls. Only then did the Kiwi team reach this score. Batsmen like Will Young and Glenn Phillips, who showed wonders in India, failed. For Sri Lanka, young spinner Dunith Vellalage took 3 wickets, while pacers Nuwan Thushara and Matisha Pathirana got 2 wickets each.

Captain Aslanka led the victory

Sri Lanka also faced problems in the beginning and in the second over itself, Mitchell Santner sent back opener Kusal Mendis without opening the account. Only 3 wickets had fallen for 55 runs, while by 87 runs half the team had returned to the pavilion. The target was not very big, so the match still looked in favor of Sri Lanka. From here, captain Charit Asalanka took charge from one side and died after taking the team to the target. Sri Lanka scored 140 runs losing 6 wickets in 19 overs and registered victory and took the lead in the series. Asalanka returned unbeaten after scoring 35 runs in 28 balls, while Kusal Perera and Kamindu Mendis scored 23 runs each. Zakari, who scored the most runs for New Zealand, also took the maximum 3 wickets.