Lots of celebrations from the crowd. The Lankans were out there in full force as soon as Samaraweera played that. Hugging, embracing, and huge smiles on the Lankans' faces. The Kiwis walk up to them and congratulate them. 6th Semi-final and still no final for the men from the land of the long white cloud. Murali is hoisted up by a couple of his team-mates and he is urging them to bring him down - he has a date with destiny on the 2nd of April. Wonderful scenes as Murali is doing a lap of honor. The crowd love him to bits. Last game on home soil and it has ended with a win as it did in his last Test match at Galle against India. Percy the long time Lankan supporter is following Murali as he soaks in all the applause. Two of the greatest modern day spinners in Dan and Murali. Sadly one's career has ended, while the other legend's will end on April 2nd.
New Zealand will be mighty pleased with their effort but they were unlucky that they came up short. On a pitch that was slowing up considerably, Dilshan and Sangakkara played a superb innings. They carted the Kiwi bowlers to all parts of the ground and it seemed that the game was headed towards an early finish. They went past their fifties and shared a 120 run partnership to put SL on course. However, three wickets fell for just nine runs and NZ gave a good fight. Chamara Silva and Samaraweera struggled to score runs and NZ were slowly but surely applying pressure. Silva continued his poor run, but Samaraweera and Mathews held their nerve till the end. Mathews, aided by the runner, struck some crucial blows to give the Sri Lankans a thrilling five wicket win. With this victory, Sri Lanka have booked a place in the finals. This is their second consecutive final appearance and they will be really determined to win this now. For the Kiwis, it was their sixth appearance in a World Cup semi-final and they fell short yet again.

Posted in Labels: Cricket WC News Posted by VIDYA SHANKER PANDEY at 12:11 AM