Sri Lanka: we will have to regroup

measured up playing confident cricket, while the other was left trailing in their wake.

Yet again Sri Lanka showed no appetite for hunkering down to rescue a difficult situation. No one reached 20 in their 27.4 ball innings.

Matt Henry once more finished with the best figures, four for 33, and the fielding was slick.

Guptill paid tribute to the work of the seamers, Henry, Mitch McClenaghan and Doug Bracewell enjoying themselves and getting good rewards for hostile, accurate bowling.

As impressively as New Zealand went about their business, it was desperately disappointing for the 6000-plus crowd, who were deprived of a true contest by Sri Lanka’s ineptitude.

New Zealand can wrap up the fivegame series in Nelson on Thursday. On Saturday it was a public apology; yesterday Sri Lanka’s beleaguered coach Jerome Jayaratne was at it again, trying to explain the inexplicable.

In two ODIs Sri Lanka have batted a total of 74.4 overs and bowled just 29.2 overs as New Zealand dished out two hefty spankings, by seven and 10 wickets.

‘‘Today was a really humiliating day, a big disappointment,’’ Jayaratne said.

‘‘We will have to regroup, go back to the drawing board. We have had repeat failures. The way we’ve played is not what we planned to operate.’’

He said the onus was on Sri Lanka’s batsmen. The bowlers cannot be judged on the first two games when they have had next to nothing to work with.

The gap left by the retired greats Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene has been exposed as deeper than had been thought.

Jayaratne said Lahiru Thirmanne and Dinesh Chandimal had been earmarked to fill those spots at No 3 and 4 in the order.

While Chandimal had a decent test series, the pair have mustered just 16 runs in four ODI innings so far, off 63 balls.

‘‘I feel our batters just aren’t tight enough,’’ Jayaratne said. ‘‘When you lose a couple of wickets you want to dig deep and build a partnership. That is not happening now.

‘‘We have talked about it, tried to keep them motivated. We still have a chance of coming back in the series in Nelson.’’

That’s looking a long journey at this point, but it’s worth noting Sri Lanka did win their four previous ODIs before coming to New Zealand, and they are ranked fifth, one place below New Zealand.

Jayaratne paid tribute to New Zealand’s fielding – ‘‘they are one of the best sides, if not the best, in the world.

‘‘I feel we hit the ball in the air too much, and New Zealand always grab half chances.’’

Indeed the catching in the first two games has generally been good, misses by Ross Taylor and Henry Nicholls excepted.

Tom Latham, twice, wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi and Mitchell Santner have taken sharp catches.