Allen, in particular, shined with the bat and smashed a half-century as he appeared extremely fluent during his stay. The 23-year-old, however, had a big slice of luck in his favour in the early part of his innings.
Allen was on 9 off 6 balls when a delivery from Kasun Rajitha clipped his off stump but didn’t remove the bails. Former New Zealand cricketer Craig McMillan, who was on the air, initially screamed: “Bowled him!” before saying: “No, he hasn’t. Wow… he [the bowler] thought he had as well.”
It all happened during the third over of the New Zealand innings when Rajitha bowled a peach of a delivery which shaped away after pitching and flicked the off-stump on its way to the keeper. However, the bails didn’t come off as all the Lankan players, as well as Allen, were left stunned.
Here is the video:
Allen was eventually dismissed for 51 from 49 deliveries, including 5 fours and 2 sixes. Apart from the opening batter, Mitchell, who recently bagged the Sir Richard Hadlee medal in New Zealand Cricket Awards, smashed 47 off 58 balls with the help of 3 fours and 2 maximums. Similarly, Phillips also smacked 42-ball 39 to help the Black Caps reach a respectable total.
After the New Zealand innings, Allen admitted they could’ve pushed the total a bit more but was satisfied with what they posted on the board. He lavished praise on Chamika Karunaratne, who bagged a 4-wicket haul for 43 in 9 overs, stating that the Lankan pacer made it tough for the New Zealand batters.
“With the base that we had, we could have looked to push for a few more. It’s certainly a score I think we are pretty happy with on that wicket. It was certainly a tricky wicket. The way Karunaratne bowled through the middle, hit his lengths nice, got a little bit of seam movement and made it tough for us,” said Allen after the end of the first innings.
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