Getty New Zealand and Sri Lanka will meet at Bay Oval for the second time in three days.
New Zealand and Sri Lanka will meet at Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui for their second of three ODIs.
In the United States, the match is scheduled to start Friday night at 8 p.m. ET. While it won’t be broadcast nationally on television anywhere in the US, you can still watch a live stream of the game on your computer, phone or streaming device via ESPN+, the new digital streaming service from ESPN that has exclusive coverage to dozens of sporting events every week.
You can sign up for a free seven-day trial of ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other streaming device via the ESPN app.
If you can’t watch live, all games — including New Zealand vs Sri Lanka — that are streamed on ESPN+ are also available to be watched afterwards on-demand via ESPN.com or the ESPN app.
New Zealand vs Sri Lanka 2nd ODI Preview
The sides played the first of three ODIs two days prior, a 45-run victory for New Zealand that also took place at Bay Oval. Black Caps all-rounder Jimmy Neesham stole the show, scoring an unbeaten 47 off 13 balls and taking 3-38 as a bowler.
“I sort of went out there without too many expectations and just decided I would try take a couple of balls from Malinga at that other end, and then get going with the wind from the other end,” Neesham said, according to The New Zealand Herald.
“Sometimes you go out there, and it hits the middle from the start and other times you struggle a little bit, but yesterday was obviously a good day.”
As a bowler, he set down Sri Lankan stars Niroshan Dickwella, Danushka Gunathilaka, and Dinesh Chandimal.
“Bowling’s been the main focus for me, really, over the last year-and-a-half or so, since I obviously got left out of the team,” Neesham said, per the Herald.
“I pretty much now train as a front-line bowler and get my batting training done when I can and obviously the increased load and increased numbers of balls I’ve been bowling are helping a lot.”
He added: “If I’m bowling well, that’s good enough; it’s just a case of being more consistent and that was a good start yesterday obviously.”
Neesham’s quality performance as a bowler was a rarity in a 371-326 match.
“The bowlers didn’t deliver many wicket-taking balls,” Sri Lankan bowler Lasith Malinga said, according to CricBuzz. “We didn’t use variations even on a batting wicket. We have to analyze that and come back stronger in the next game.”
New Zealand opening batsman Martin Guptill impressed in his return from a calf injury. Following a 10-month layoff, he recorded his 14th ODI century by hitting 138 off 139 balls.
“It’s been a long time out and obviously there was the intensity and a big step up,” Guptill said, according to the Associated Press. “It’s been a lot of hard work. To come back and then two days out from a return to tear my calf was pretty frustrating. But over the last three months I’ve put in a lot of hard work to get back to where I am now.”
The 32-year-old said he’s overcome his health issues.
“I played the CPL and played in England, and in the last three months I did a lot of hard work to come around and everything is fine with my injuries now,” Guptill said, according to CricBuzz. “Everything is settled down now.”