Muralitharan spins Sri Lanka into World Cup final
Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan bamboozled New Zealand to send the 1996 champions to the World Cup final with a 81-run victory.
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene chose to bat and struck an unbeaten 115 to lead his side to a daunting 289 for five at Sabina Park.
A stunning opening spell from unorthodox paceman Lasith Malinga then put New Zealand on the back foot before Muralitharan took four wickets, including three in six balls, as the Kiwis crumbled to 208 all out in 41.4 overs.
Australia play South Africa in St Lucia on Wednesday for the right to face Sri Lanka in Saturday's Barbados final. New Zealand have now lost in five World Cup semi-finals.
Sri Lanka surge into World Cup final
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene struck an unbeaten century to lead his side into the World Cup final following a 81-run victory over New Zealand at Sabina Park on Tuesday.
The 1996 champions scored 289 for five and then condemned the Kiwis to their fifth semi-final defeat after bowling them out for 208 in the 42nd over.
Muralitharan spins Sri Lanka into final
Sri Lanka spinner Muttiah Muralitharan bamboozled New Zealand on Tuesday to send the 1996 champions to the World Cup final with a 81-run victory.
Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene chose to bat and struck an unbeaten 115 to lead his side to a daunting 289 for five at Sabina Park.
Master spinner Muralitharan then took four for 31 as he ran through the New Zealand middle-order, picking up three wickets in six balls, with Stephen Fleming's side collapsing to 208 all out. Fleming quit as Kiwis' one-day skipper shortly afterwards.
New Zealand's semi-final jinx continued -- this was their fifth defeat at this stage of the World Cup in nine tournaments -- while Sri Lanka moved into their second final.
They will meet the winners of Wednesday's second semi between holders Australia and South Africa in St Lucia.
Jayawardene had said before the game that his side's strength lay in specialists and his superbly paced innings, along with a knock of 73 from Upul Tharanga, justified his confidence in the upper order.
Not for the first time, Lasith Malinga delivered a superb spell of pace bowling before Muralitharan's deceptive spin proved too much for the Kiwis.
New Zealand had been well poised in their reply working their way to 100-2 after 20 overs but Muralitharan turned the game, producing a spell of five wickets for just 11 runs in tandem with Sanath Jayasuriya.
EARLY SETBACK
Sri Lanka had suffered an early setback when Jayasuriya, his country's most prolific run scorer, was bowled by James Franklin for one.
Left-armer Franklin claimed his second victim when wicketkeeper Kumar Sangakkara dollied a simple catch to New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming at mid-on with the score at 67.
Tharanga and a cautious Jayawardene then put on 44 and threatened a major partnership before spinner Daniel Vettori bowled a sweeping Tharanga around his legs.
Chamara Silva was unfortunate to be given out lbw off a mis-firing Shane Bond for 21 when television replays suggested he had got bat on ball before it hit the pads.
Tillakaratne Dilshan joined Jayawardene at a crucial stage of the game with Sri Lanka 152 for four in the 35th over and the pair stepped up the pace putting on an 81-run partnership in 64 deliveries.
Jacob Oram got rid off Dilshan with another harsh lbw decision before Jayawardene, who had been dropped by Bond on 70, then took complete charge and Sri Lanka amassed 102 runs from the final 10 overs.
The response began poorly for New Zealand when Fleming was trapped lbw by Malinga -- bowling with outstanding pace and accuracy -- and Chaminda Vaas trapped Ross Taylor leg before to leave the Kiwis on 32 for two.
But Scott Styris and Peter Fulton put on a 73-run partnership which brought New Zealand back into the running before Styris (37) was caught at mid-wicket off Dilshan and the slump began.
Jacob Oram (3) was the victim of a superb caught and bowled from Muralitharan and the spinner dismissed Brendon McCallum first ball, the wicketkeeper caught by Silva after unwisely trying to sweep.
Fulton went for 46, caught by Silva off Jayasuriya, before Muralitharan struck again trapping Vettori lbw after he failed to read the 'doosra' -- the off-spinner's surprise leg-break. New Zealand were then 116-7.
Craig McMillan, who struggled throughout the game with a stomach muscle problem, provided a brief rally with a hard-hitting 25 but the damage had been done and Muralitharan's fourth victim came when he bowled Bond.
With the game all but over last-man Jeetan Patel hit a spirited 34 at the end before he holed out off Dilshan.
The seven-week tournament, the first in the Caribbean, culminates on Saturday with the final in Bridgetown, Barbados.
Fleming quits as New Zealand one-day skipper
Stephen Fleming quit as New Zealand's one-day captain on Tuesday after his side's crushing World Cup semi-final defeat by Sri Lanka.
Fleming, 34, has led the side for 10 years and wants to stays as test captain and continue playing limited over internationals.
"I want to keep on playing but I'm standing down as captain of the one-day side," he told a news conference.
"Every win was celebrated. The tournament wins were very special. I think we do damn well with what we have got."
Fleming has served as skipper for three World Cups, reaching two semi-finals.
But New Zealand have never reached the World Cup final and in all have now lost five semi-finals in nine tournaments following Tuesday's 81-run loss.
"I'm not sure there was much more we could have done. As far as planning goes, we were extremely clear in our minds what we wanted to do," Fleming added.
The Christchurch-born batsman, who is also New Zealand's most successful and longest-serving test captain, led the one-day side for 218 of his 280 internationals, winning 98 and losing 106 matches.
"Stephen has been a great leader for New Zealand for quite some time now," Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said.
"Even when I started he was captain. You could learn a lot from him. He is a very good captain and with the resources he had he has built up a very decent team.
"He's been one of the top captains for the last 10 years."
Fleming, who made his one-day international debut against India at Napier in March 1994, first captained the side in a defeat by Sri Lanka in Christchurch in March 1997.
Vice-captain and key spinner Daniel Vettori
Centurion Jayawardene gives credit to bowlers
Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene scored a match-winning century but handed the credit to his bowling attack after Tuesday's 81-run victory over New Zealand in their World Cup semi-final.
Off spinner Muttiah Muralitharan took four wickets to rip the heart out of the New Zealand middle-order after paceman Lasith Malinga returned from his injury layoff with an outstanding opening spell.
Muralitharan grabbed three wickets in six balls to leave the Kiwis looking clueless against his cunning spin.
"When you have a guy like that you know that your wicket-taking options are better," said the skipper, who hit an unbeaten 115 in his team's total of 289 for five.
"But he is a human as well, he can't do it all the time. He comes up with some really good efforts for us though.
"With him, Lasith and (Chaminda) Vaas I think I have better options now and obviously as a captain that is a good position to be in."
While Muralitharan's spell turned the game in Sri Lanka's direction, Malinga had set the tone with a wicket-maiden in his first over. He claimed the scalp of New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming.
Malinga had missed Sri Lanka's last three Super Eights matches due to an ankle injury but Jayawardene said he was not at all taken aback by his opening bowler's return.
"I wasn't surprised. The guy has been putting in a lot of effort and he was very upset that he wasn't playing, wasn't part of the team," he said.
"In the last two practice sessions we saw him looking really eager and he was doing things that he has done before.
BIG HEART
"He has a big heart and he has improved quite a lot as a cricketer in the last 12 months and I think his hard work has paid off."
The vital wicket of Scott Styris, who was looking threatening on 37, came not from one of Sri Lanka's frontline bowlers but back-up man Tillakaratne Dilshan.
Jayawardene said that surprise allowed him to turn the heat on New Zealand.
"Once the field went back after the Powerplays I thought I could sneak in maybe four or five overs but I never expected Dilshan to pick up a wicket that early," he said.
"That was a bonus, once we got that Murali came and asked me - 'shall we have a go at the batsmen for a few overs and try and pick up a few wickets?'
"That was a good time for us to put pressure on New Zealand and he picked up two wickets in that next over so everything worked pretty well. Nothing was planned, everything just happened so quickly."
Fleming, who announced after the match that he was standing down as one-day captain, acknowledged his side had been second-best.
"We certainly didn't play well enough I felt we were outclassed at key moments. But am proud of where we got to even if we wanted to go one further," he said.
will be the front-runner to replace Fleming.
SCOREBOARD
Sri Lanka:
W Tharanga b Vettori 73
S Jayasuriya b Franklin 1
K Sangakkara c Fleming b Franklin 18
M Jayawardene not out 115
L Silva lbw b Bond 21
T Dilshan lbw b Oram 30
R Arnold not out 14
Extras (lb 3, w 9, nb 5) 17
Total (5 wickets; 50 overs; 218 mins) 289
Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Jayasuriya, 2.3 overs), 2-67 (Sangakkara, 13.1 overs), 3-111 (Tharanga, 25.1 overs), 4-152 (Silva, 34.3 overs), 5-233 (Dilshan, 45.1 overs)
Bowling:
James Franklin 9-1-46-2 (2nb, 2w)
Shane Bond 10-1-59-1 (1nb, 3w)
Jacob Oram 10-0-60-1 (2nb, 1w)
Daniel Vettori 10-0-51-1 (1w)
Jeetan Patel 10-0-62-0
Scott Styris 1-0-8-0 (1w)
New Zealand:
P Fulton c Silva b Jayasuriya 46
S Fleming lbw b Malinga 1
R Taylor lbw b Vaas 9
S Styris c Jayawardene b Dilshan 37
J Oram c & b Muralitharan 3
B McCullum c Silva b Muralitharan 0
C McMillan b Jayasuriya 25
D Vettori lbw b Muralitharan 0
J Franklin not out 30
S Bond b Muralitharan 2
J Patel c Fernando b Dilshan 34
Extras (b 5, lb 2, w 8, nb 6) 21
Total (all out; 41.4 overs; 181 mins) 208
Fall of wickets1-2 (Fleming, 1.3 overs), 2-32 (Taylor, 10.3 overs), 3-105 (Styris, 21.5 overs), 4-114 (Oram, 23.5 overs), 5-114 (McCullum, 23.6 overs), 6-115 (Fulton, 24.3 overs), 7-116 (Vettori, 25.4 overs), 8-144 (McMillan, 30.2 overs), 9-149 (Bond, 31.4 overs), 10-208 (Patel, 41.4 overs)
Bowling:
Chaminda Vaas 8-1-25-1 (1w)
Lasith Malinga 7-2-21-1 (1nb)
Dilhara Fernando 5-0-45-0 (5nb, 1w)
Muttiah Muralitharan 8-0-31-4 (1w)
Sanath Jayasuriya 9-0-57-2 (3w)
Tillakaratne Dilshan 4.4-0-22-2 (1w)
Result: Sri Lanka won by 81 runs
Man of the Match: M Jayawardene (Sri Lanka)
Umpires: RE Koertzen (South Africa) and SJA Taufel (Australia)
TV umpire: DJ Harper (Australia)
Match referee: MJ Procter (South Africa)
