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| The washout means Suraj Randiv has yet to serve his suspension and will miss the replay on Frida |
Anyone looking to predict how the second half of the tri-series will pan out will have a hard time finding a pattern from the first set of league matches. Consistency has eluded all three teams, each of whom have had one comfortable victory and one big defeat so far. The reserve day for all matches in this tournament means nothing much has changed due to Thursday's washout; whoever loses the replay on Friday will still be left staring at a must-win situation in their final league match.
Missing out on a bonus point has left Sri Lanka at a bit of a disadvantage, but their immediate challenge will be to switch the focus back to cricket after the brouhaha over the Suraj Randiv no-ball incident. There have been accusations of breaching the spirit of cricket, apologies aplenty and an internal probe into the incident by the Sri Lankan board, which resulted in Randiv's suspension for a game and him and Tillakaratne Dilshan losing their match fees. The controversy overshadowed a comprehensive defeat to India, after which Kumar Sangakkara criticised his team for batting that was "not at all professional and not up to standard at this level of cricket".
New Zealand surprised everyone in the opening match with a strong batting performance, before their batting fragility was exposed by Sri Lanka. One of New Zealand's main worries in the tournament has been the top-order batting, and that will be amplified if Martin Guptill fails to recover from injury in time for Friday's game. They have lost three wickets cheaply in both their matches so far, leaving the middle order plenty of rescue-and-recovery work.
