Duffy stars with ball, Hay with bat, as Black Caps clinch T20 series

Bowler Jacob Duffy has again stepped into the void left by recent Black Caps defections, propelling his team to a Twenty20 series win over Sri Lanka with a 45-run victory in the second encounter at Mt Maunganui.

Chasing a target of 186 runs, the tourists were poised at 71/1 after nine overs, with dangerous opener Pathum Nissanka on the charge. Enter Duffy, who removed the threat with the first ball of his second over.

He would also claim the scalp of Kusal Perera, as he threatened to carry the tourists close, but the batting effort fell away alarmingly after that, as Duffy picked up tailenders Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana, and took the catch that ended the innings well short of its target.

With veterans Tim Southee and Trent Boult now out of the picture, and speedster Lockie Ferguson plying his trade in the Australian Big Bash, Duffy has shown his readiness to hold down a fulltime place in the NZ bowling attack, after his three-wicket over was instrumental in the series-opening win on Saturday.

"Great to see," said NZ captain Mitch Santner. "Every time I bring him back, he gets a pole in the first couple of balls of his spell.

"Especially in the first game, key wickets there and again here... the best way to slow a run rate down is taking wickets and that's what we were able to do in the middle."

New Zealand were invited to bat first again and presented an unchanged line-up, with Wellington Firebirds teammates Tim Robinson and Rachin Ravindra reprising their opening partnership.

Robinson began his account with a six over mid-off, but Ravindra never looked comfortable, skying a top-edge catch in the third over.

Two balls later, Robinson copped a slow bouncer from Nuwan Thushara in the helmet, but batted on with a replacement lid and deflected to fine-leg for his second boundary.

Left-hander Mark Chapman repeated that stroke against spinner Theekshana and survived a confident leg-before-wicket review by a touch of his glove. Robinson found the rope again at mid-off, Chapman matched it on the other side of the wicket and the home side were 48/1 after the six-over powerplay.

Two nights earlier, they were 32/2 at the same stage, so things were already looking up.

Chapman had an undetected life, when he feathered a delivery down legside, incorrectly called wide and dropped by wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis. Two overs later, Sri Lanka burnt up their last review on a similar delivery that missed everything.

Chapman made them pay with a huge six over mid-wicket and Robinson repeated the dose to start the next over, but next delivery, spinner Hasaranga had him bowled for 41 off 34 balls.

Sadly out of form in recent innings, Glenn Phillips hit consecutive boundaries through the onside and over slip, as New Zealand recached their 100 off 72 balls. A six off Theekshana signalled he might be back on song and Chapman followed suit.

Hasaranga returned to end Chapman’s assault, luring him out of his crease, as Mendis completed the stumping. Chapman’s 42 came off 29 balls and included two sixes. Phillips’ fireworks ended seven balls later with a catch on the boundary off Matheesha Pathiranga and the Black Caps’ bright start was beginning to splutter with five overs remaining.

The Sri Lankan bowlers tried to keep the ball wide outside offstump to restrict boundary opportunities, which frustrated Daryl Mitchell, as he tried to accelerate the scoring, but his torment ended, when bowler Fernando ran him out. At 152/5, the Kiwis’ position of strength had dissipated to an even contest with two overs left.

Wicketkeeper Mitch Hay, who fell first ball in the series opener, found the rope off Theekshana, then jumped on a full toss to clear it. Two balls on, he repeated the shot and the Black Caps were poised to surpass their winning score from the first match.

A single off Fernando stretched to two overthrows, Hay had four more, then ran two, before ramping over the keeper for four. With two more runs, he had guided his team to 186/5, scoring an unbeaten 41 off just 19 balls.

"It was good to contribute to a good score, one we were pretty happy with, and contribute to a win really," said Hay, playing his first international series on home soil.

"I was trying to give myself a few balls to have a look at a couple and it quickly became quite a heavy death period, so I was swinging pretty hard and lucky to find the middle a few times."

New Zealand were off to a promising start with the ball, restricting the Sri Lanka openers to just eight runs off the first two overs, but Nissanka broke the shackles with six and four off Matt Henry. Another towering hit fell short of the boundary and between fielders, but another four made 16 off the third over.

Santner injected his own spin early and immediately had Kusal Mendis caught by Mitchell over his shoulder. Perera was lucky to see an edge fall short of diving Duffy and then survive a mix-up between batters.

Fast-bowler Zak Foulkes had trouble with his run-up, caught overstepping twice in the same over, but the required run rate was quickly over 10 an over. Nissanka hooked Santner behind square leg for six, but the rate continued to edge up.

Michael Bracewell's first over yielded a pair of boundaries and 11 runs, but Duffy lured menacing Nissanka into a catch down fine-leg to Henry — a much-needed breakthrough. Perera deposited Phillips onto the bank and Kamindu Mendis helped himself to four to further ease the pressure.

Perera reversed Bracewell for six, then replicated the shot for four. Mendis liked the look of that option, but was unable pull it off himself, caught in the outfield by Chapman.

Perera skied Henry high, but this time, Mitchell was unable to hold the running catch and Sri Lanka captain Charith Asalanka hit consecutive boundaries to stay on the run rate.

Perera continued to use the reverse to good effect against Bracewell and the tourists needed 60 off the last five overs — two runs a ball — when Duffy returned to end Perera's threat, clean bowled.

Asalanka almost followed two balls later, when he lofted towards the boundary and eluded Phillips' desperate dash, and the over produced just five runs, as the rate climbed again.

Santner tempted his counterpart into a sweep into the breeze and Chapman accepted the catch. Hasaranga almost cleared the rope off his first ball faced, but Phillips climbed high to deprive him, although unable to hold the catch.

For the third time on the night, Duffy claimed a wicket with the first ball of an over, smashing Hasaranga's stumps asunder. The tailenders that could not finish off a winning position in the opener now needed to find 51 runs off three overs, but Theekshana lofted meekly to Santner and Duffy had his best international figures of 4/15.

Avishka Fernando fended a wide delivery to Robinson in the outfield, then Pathirana edged the next ball to Hay behind the stumps, but Thushara denied Henry his hat-trick.

Instead, Binura Fernando edged Foulkes to Duffy off the first ball of the final over, leaving his team well short of their target.

"It was a great performance," reflected Santner. "With the bat, we managed to put them under pressure in the powerplay.

"I said at the start, whoever could use the wind the best would do well and we were able to do that with the bat especially."

The two teams meet again on Thursday at Nelson's Saxton Oval.

New Zealand 186/5 (Chapman 42, Hay 41no, Robinson 41; Hasaranga 2/28) Sri Lanka 141 (Perera 48, Nissanka 37, Asalanka 20; Duffy 4/15, Henry 2/31, Santner 2/22)

Black Caps win by 45 runs, lead the series 2-0