Sri Lanka vs New Zealand 2019, 2nd T20I – Southee’s T20I captaincy record, New Zealand’s recovery, Sri Lanka’s embarrassing feat and more stats

New Zealand clinched the 3-match T20I series against Sri Lanka as they go 2-0 up with one match still to be played. Collective contributions pushed Sri Lanka to 161/9 after electing to bat first. Akila Dananjaya sent back the top three of the Kiwis in only ten balls he bowled. However, the visitors did recover from 38/3 as Colin de Grandhomme and Tom Bruce scored fifties. Their 109-run stand for the 4th wicket won them the game despite losing a couple of wickets in the last two overs.

All the statistical highlights from New Zealand’s thrilling win in the 2nd T20I against Sri Lanka:

Sri Lanka bags an embarrassing feat:

58 – Number of matches Sri Lanka has lost in the T20I format; the most number of T20I defeats for any team. The Lankans surpassed West Indies and Bangladesh who lost 57 T20Is apiece. Sri Lanka featured in 116 matches in this format winning in 55 of them. Two matches ended in a Tie while another one got washed out.

0 – Sri Lanka failed to win even one T20I match in 2019. They played as many as six T20Is this year losing in five of them and another game ending in a Tie even which they lost during Super Over. Lasith Malinga was the captain of Sri Lanka in all these six matches.

Grandhomme and Bruce rescue Kiwis:

1 – Colin de Grandhomme (59) and Tom Bruce (53) scored fifties batting at No.4 and No.5 positions. This is the first time two players batting outside top three scoring fifties for New Zealand in a T20I. Overall, this is the 9th instance of two players outside top three in the batting order scoring fifties in the same innings.

A record partnership:

109 – The partnership of 109 between Colin de Grandhomme and Tom Bruce is the 3rd century stand for the 4th wicket in T20Is by a New Zealand pair. Corey Anderson and Kane Williamson added 124 while Tom Bruce and Colin Munro shared a 123-run stand for the 4th wicket in consecutive matches against Bangladesh in 2017.

This stand of 109 runs between Grandhomme and Bruce is also the highest partnerships in T20Is by any pair against Sri Lanka for the 4th or any lower wicket.

Southee’s 100% record:

5 – Tim Southee has won all the five T20I matches in which he led New Zealand. He is the first captain from New Zealand and the 6th overall to win each of first five T20I matches as captain.

Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara, Pakistan’s Misbah-ul-Haq and Sarfraz Ahmed have achieved it before Southee among the Test-playing nations. Among the associate countries, Italy’s Gayashan Munasinghe and Namibia’s Gerhard Erasmus have achieved this feat.

Santner finishes off in style:

500 – Mitchell Santner finished off the chase by hitting a six and four when New Zealand needed 7 runs from four balls. His strike rate of 500 is the 2nd highest for any player in any successful chase in International cricket who played more than one ball. Dawlat Zadran finished off the chase against Oman in 2016 Fatullah T20I with two sixes off two deliveries.