Cricket: Sri Lanka offers more than lip service with both bat and ball

Danushka Gunathilaka bats during the third ODI. Photo / Getty Images

A tough time in the nets on Wednesday paid off handsomely for Sri Lanka at Saxton Oval today.

Four batsmen were struck during a lively practice session, then opener Danushka Gunathilaka got a fat lip spilling a catch in the outfield during New Zealand's innings.

He was able to laugh about it tonight. One Sri Lankan had quipped that when Tillekaratne Dilshan was struck the face, it might wake him up, after a sluggish start to the series.

That worked, with the veteran hitting a fine 91, while Gunathilaka won man of the match for his scintillating 65 off 45 balls.

"We just kept encouraging each other," Gunathilaka said of the team's attitude before the match, which they had to win to stay alive in the series.

"The coach and captain said we should go and play positive."

As for his own performance, in his fourth ODI, "it came on to the bat really nicely, it was a good track I guess luck was on my side today."

New Zealand now have to pick themselves back up, after taking a resounding 2-0 lead in Christchurch, only to get a thorough beating.

"He's a world class player," New Zealand allrounder Mitchell Santner said of the 29-year-old Dilshan.

"We knew he'd had a couple of failures and was obviously due some runs and really cashed in and played really well, to be fair."

Gunathilaka played "a serious knock, really put us on the back foot early doors and it was quite hard to come back from that".

Santner's figures, none for 59 off 10 overs, were no worse than most of his bowling team mates but he'll benefit from the experience.

"Every time you're out there it's an experience.

"Obviously I didn't bowl as well as I would have liked but you take the learnings for the next game and hopefully build on that."

New Zealand are having a day off from the nets tomorrow and they figure it's only small aspects they need to sharpen on. However they now sense Sri Lanka are right back series.

Dilshan, Lahiru Thirimanne and Dinesh Chandimal are key batsmen. All made runs today, and Chandimal carried decent form in from the test series.

Add in the rising talent of Gunathilaka, plus the fact captain Angelo Mathews is overdue runs and New Zealand will recognize this series just got a lot tougher.

New Zealand seamer Tim Southee has been ruled out for the rest of the series after injuring his left foot in the loss to Sri Lanka.

Canterbury's Matt Henry returns to the team after taking eight wickets in the first two one-dayers.

Southee's injury will be further assessed on Friday.