T20 World Cup 2026 | New Zealand sends Sri Lanka packing

Matt Henry silenced a full house at the R. Premadasa Stadium on Wednesday (February 25, 2026) when he breached Pathum Nissanka’s gate with a nip-backer and castled him off the first ball of Sri Lanka’s chase of 169.

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The host never really recovered from the morale-crushing fall of its in-form batter and eventually crashed out of the T20 World Cup with a 61-run loss to New Zealand, its second straight defeat in the Super Eight.

After Sri Lanka lost two early wickets, Kusal Mendis and Pavan Rathnayake attempted a recovery .But the end of their laborious 21-run third-wicket partnership off 36 balls sent Sri Lanka into a free fall.

The twin dismissals helped Rachin Ravindra achieve career-best figures of four for 27, with Dasun Shanaka and Dushan Hemantha also becoming his victims .Kamindu Mendis’ reverse sweeps off Ish Sodhi and Cole McConchie came too late to really swing the contest back in Sri Lanka’s favour.

He eventually pulled a half-tracker from Mitchell Santner to deep midwicket and departed for a 23-ball 31 as Sri Lanka ended at just 107 for eight.

The game slipped from Sri Lanka’s grasp in the last four overs of the first innings, where it leaked 70 runs to the unfancied pair of Santner (47, 26b, 2×4 , 4×6) and McConchie (31 n.o., 23b, 3×4, 2×6) .Their seventh-wicket partnership got New Zealand 84 off 47 balls, salvaging it from a precarious 84 for six.

Sri Lanka’s capitulation was unexpected after its spinners controlled the tempo of the New Zealand innings .Maheesh Theekshana and Dunith Wellalage extracted grip and turn to bring the Kiwis crashing from 75 for two to 84 for six. But they had little inkling that Santner and McConchie were about to break free and cast a pall over their evening.

The scores: New Zealand 168/7 in 20 overs (Rachin Ravindra 32, Mitchell Santner 47, Luke McConchie 31 n.o., Maheesh Theekshana 3/30, Dushmantha Chameera 3/38) bt Sri Lanka 107/8 in 20 overs (Kamindu Mendis 31, Matt Henry 2/3, Rachin Ravindra 4/27). Toss: Sri Lanka; PoM: Rachin.