Sri Lanka will not often lose games when Muttiah Muralitharan takes five wickets for nine runs, but they did lose one such match against New Zealand at Sharjah on Tuesday.

New Zealand started less than ideally, the in-form Nathan Astle being caught behind off Nuwan Zoysa's first delivery. Chris Nevin, the other opener, brushed aside the setback and proceeded to cut and drive Chaminda Vaas with panache. Zoysa, far more impressive on the day, pulled things back by having Craig McMillan caught off a mistimed pull at long leg.

Stephen Fleming started shakily but soon settled down, steering his side past those two initial hiccups and fabricating a stand with Nevin. But Sri Lanka, after the drinks break, brought a dual-pronged spin attack into play, and since one of those prongs was Muttiah Muralitharan, something was bound to snap.

The batsmen started to look suspect against spin, pushing and prodding indecisively. Muralitharan feeds insatiably on such mindsets, and he had Fleming (34, 46b, 4x4) in his second over. Extracting his customary prodigious turn, Muralitharan completely foxed Fleming. The southpaw could not withdraw his bat in time and almost guided the ball to slip, ending a partnership of 55.

In his next over, Murali induced a pull from Scott Styris, the ball turning enough to balloon into the air and then down the throat of Vaas on the mid-wicket fence. New Zealand were 92 for four, struggling to keep afloat.

Nevin, who had played seam with calm elan, had appeared in obvious discomfort against Murali. He fell in an unfortunate manner, though. A bat-pad appeal was referred to the third umpire; the replay showed that the catch was cleanly taken, but that the ball had missed the bat. The third umpire, however, was required to rule only upon the legality of the catch, so Nevin (45, 5bb, 5x5) trudged back to the pavilion.

More drama reared its head. In the 26th over, Sri Lanka appealed for a catch against Mathew Sinclair, and umpire Srinivas Venkataraghavan acceded. But Sinclair stood his ground, indicating that the ball had hit his arm, whereupon Venkataraghavan called over the Sri Lankan skipper and reversed his decision - a phenomenon as common as hen's teeth in cricket. Sanath Jayasuriya, to his credit, took the reversal sportingly.

The overs between 30 and 40 tumbled past in a hurry, the spinners delivering the ball and striding quickly back to their mark. The batsmen found themselves unable to force the pace; 34 runs and one wicket came off those 10 overs, the wicket that of Matthew Sinclair (28, 55b), caught at short third man trying the reverse-sweep.

A late charge came from Jacob Oram, who struck 46 (33b, 5x4, 2x6) and helped New Zealand past the 200-run mark to 218 for eight. For Sri Lanka, the undisputed star was one familiar to that role - Muralitharan, whose figures of 10-3-9-5 were, to put it mildly, fantastic.

Sri Lanka lost Jayasuriya early to Daryl Tuffey, but Sangakkara and Marvan Atapattu played sensible cricket, rotating the strike and dispatching poor bowling for four. Atapattu in particular played with elegant fluidity, merely stroking the ball for it to reach the fence.

Sangakkara's dismissal thus came against the run of play. Having just hit Ian Butler for four, Sangakkara (23, 41b, 4x4) looked to pull a short ball on leg-stump. The timing, however, was off, and Tuffey took a simple catch at square leg.

The runs continued to flow, steadily rather than spectacularly. Atapattu, who has played the sheet-anchor role for his side so many times, appeared to don the mantle again today. He survived a sharp chance at point, and Fleming not only grassed it but injured himself in the process. Barring that minor blip, Atapattu batted sedately, playing according to the need of the situation.

Mahela Jayawardene (38, 51b, 4x4) was dismissed with the score on 125, caught at long-off in going for an expansive drive. The really big wicket, however, was that of Atapattu, the set batsman. Trying to go for an over-the-top shot in the 36th over, he only succeeded in spooning it for Ian Butler at mid-on to hold a fine catch.

The required run-rate, at this stage, had crept past the six-per-over mark, and when Romesh Kaluwitharana and Russell Arnold entered the final 10-over stretch, they needed 7.2 runs per over. The pressure, unsurprisingly, got to the batsmen, and Kaluwitharana was the one to succumb, playing across the line to be leg-before-wicket to Astle.

The 45th over saw both Upul Chandana and Vaas fall to Styris in trying to go for the big hit, and when Arnold (24, 44b, 2x4) was caught behind in the next over, Sri Lanka were staring down the barrel. Muralitharan holed out soon after, and Sri Lanka had 12 to get off the final over with just one wicket standing.

It was the wicket that fell ultimately, giving New Zealand a slender 11-run win that looked improbable earlier in the day. Sri Lanka still top the points table after this win on the basis of Net Run Rate, and Pakistan are now under even more pressure to win their next outing in this Sharjah Cup.

© CricInfo