10:09 AM IST | New Zealand seal a tense victory in the series decider winning on the penultimate ball by 4 wickets to win the T20I series 2-1. Tim Seifert (88) was the hero with the bat chasing a steep total of 183. Some late wickets for Sri Lanka propelled the match to a tense finish on the penultimate ball.

New Zealand skipper Tom Latham won the toss and elected to field first in the series decider. Put into bat first, Sri Lanka got off to a great start courtesy of their openers Kusal Mendis and Pathum Nissanka. The duo put on 76 for the first wicket.

Nissanka scored 25 off 25 balls while Kusal Mendis top scored with a brilliant 73 off 48 balls. It was his day today. Kusal Perera scored a quickfire 33 off 21 balls. Dhananjaya de Silva chipped in with 20 off 9 balls. Dasun Shanaka chipped in with 15 off 8 balls in the end. They could have got more but a brilliant last over kept them down to 182/6 in 20 overs. A couple of wickets for Ben Lister while Ish Sodhi got a wicket and so did Adam Milne. There were two run outs as well in the first innings.

The chase began on a brighter note with New Zealand openers adding 53 runs in just 5.3 overs. Chad Bowes was the first to depart off Lahiru Kumara's bowling after a couple of catches were put down which proved costly at a later stage.

Tom Latham joined Seifert and the duo added 84 runs for the second wicket providing the much needed impetus to the chase. Maheesh Theekshana bowled brilliantly for his 1/22 and picked up the key wicket of Latham to break the stand.

Pramod Madushan soon sent back Tim Seifert and put the Kiwi batters under pressure. James Neesham was run out without opening his account trying to sneak a bye with Mark Chapman, Neesham and Daryl Mitchell getting out in the space of 2 balls in the final over bowled by Lahiru Kumara. Rachin Ravindra kept his calm and scored the winning couple of runs on the penultimate ball of the match.