NOTTINGHAM, England (Reuters) – Sri Lanka reached the Twenty20 World Cup semi-finals after off-spinner Ajantha Mendis claimed three wickets to help defeat New Zealand by 48 runs in their eliminator at Trent Bridge yesterday.

Man-of-the-match Mendis had figures of three for nine including two crucial wickets in his second over as Sri Lanka defended their total of 158 for five by dismissing the Kiwis for 110 with three overs remaining.

“That’s what a quality bowler can do,” New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori told reporters when asked about the double-wicket over by Mendis.

“He bowled exceptionally well today along with some of their other bowlers. You have to admire the quality of bowling that was on display.”

Vettori was “comfortable” with the run chase required but blamed another batting failure for his team’s exit.

Sri Lanka batsman Mahela Jayawardene, who played an imaginative reverse sweep with the back of his bat in his innings, said the team’s experience at Trent Bridge — it was their fourth game there including a warm-up — helped.

“After playing a few games here we’ve realised 150 would be a good score given that we (the World Cup teams) are playing the fifth or sixth game on this track so we realised the wickets have been getting slower and slower,” said Jayawardene.

“At the start of the day, we targeted 140 as a par score.”

New Zealand threatened to overhaul Sri Lanka when opener Aaron Redmond crashed 23 from 13 balls and Martin Guptill hit 43 off 34 but the introduction of Mendis, who has bamboozled batsmen throughout the tournament, began a gradual demise.

In the ninth over, the mystery spinner had Ross Taylor stumped sharply by Kumar Sangakkara and three balls later he bowled Scott Styris with a delivery that did not spin but drifted away and knocked over his off stump.

Mendis added the wicket of Peter McGlashan to a catch at point to hasten quite a turnaround after Redmond had struck Sanath Jayasuriya for three fours and a six in consecutive deliveries to end the second over as he raced to 20.

Sri Lanka’s innings was dominated by opener Tillekeratne Dilshan, who stroked 48 from 37 balls, Jayawardene’s 41 not out from 29 and Sangakkara’s run-a-ball 35.

SRI LANKA innings
T. Dilshan c B.McCullum b Vettori 48
S. Jayasuriya c Taylor b N. McCullum 0
C. Silva c Oram b Mills 13
K. Sangakkara c Styris b Vettori 35
M. Jayawardene not out 41
J. Mubarak lbw b Butler 8
A. Mathews not out 6

Extras: (b-1, lb-1, w-4, nb-1) 7
Total: (for five wickets, 20 overs) 158
Fall of wickets: 1-3, 2-25, 3-87, 4-137, 5-147.

Bowling: N. McCullum 4-0-22-1, K. Mills 4-0-41-1, J. Oram 4-0-23-0, I. Butler 3-0-29-1, D. Vettori 4-0-32-2, S. Styris 1-0-9-0.

NEW ZEALAND innings
B. McCullum c Mubarak b Udana 10
A. Redmond c Silva b Malinga 23
M. Guptill c Mathews b Jayasuriya 43
R. Taylor st Sangakkara b Mendis 8
S. Styris b Mendis 2
J. Oram b Udana 7
P. McGlashan c Mubarak b Mendis 2
N. McCullum run-out 2
D. Vettori c Malinga b Muralitharan 3
K. Mills run-out 4
I. Butler not out 2

Extras: (lb-1, w-3) 4
Total: (all out, 17 overs) 110
Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-39, 3-64, 4-66, 5-93, 6-95, 7-98, 8-100, 9-102.

Bowling: Udana 3-0-17-2, Jayasuriya 3-0-28-1, Muralitharan 4-0-18-1, Malinga 3-0-26-1, Mendis 3-0-9-3, Dilshan 1-0-11-0.