The Blackcaps have barely held their nerve to clinch their T20 series against Sri Lanka.
For the second straight game, Colin de Grandhomme starred with the bat in a New Zealand win, but a late-order batting collapse almost gifted the game to the hosts in Kandy.
De Grandhomme and Tom Bruce combined for a match-winning 109-run fourth-wicket stand, after the Blackcaps again found themselves in early trouble at 38/3.
But de Grandhomme (59 runs from 46 balls) and Bruce (53 from 46) steered New Zealand back on course, and when de Grandhomme holed out, the Blackcaps required just 15 runs from 11 balls.
That's when panic set in. Bruce was run out from the first ball of the final over and Mitchell was caught at long-on a ball later. Suddenly, New Zealand required seven runs from four balls.
Step up Mitchell Santner, who rode his luck, blasting his first ball towards the mid-wicket boundary, where Shehan Jayasuriya seemed to have taken a superb running catch.
But he collided with teammate Kusal Mendis and tumbled over the rope, gifting Santner a maximum and New Zealand were all-but home.
Santner slapped the next ball for four and New Zealand had secured a four-wicket win.
Earlier, the Blackcaps were dealt a pre-game blow, when Ross Taylor succumbed to a hip flexor injury, his place filled by the impressive Bruce. That was compounded in the early stages of the Sri Lankan innings, when Martin Guptill left the field with a side strain, ruling him out of the rest of the game.
Sri Lanka set an impressive target of 162, led by Avishka Fernando (37 from 25) and Niroshan Dickwella (39 from 30).
Seth Rance bounced back from a horror show in game one, finishing with 3/33, while Tim Southee and Scott Kuggeleijn snared two wickets a piece.
Colin Munro, Tim Seifert and Kuggeleijn all fell early in the chase, before de Gandhomme and Bruce came together.
Newshub.
