Sri Lanka take 1-0 lead after a New Zealand arm wrestle in Galle. – BY TREVINE RODRIGO IN MELBOURNE. (eLanka Sports Editor).
Sri Lanka regained their stranglehold in Galle but not without a fight from New Zealand who made them labour for a 63 -run win in the first Test.
It seemed that Sri Lanka’s advantage over teams in Galle appeared to be loosening its grip judging by New Zealand’s counter attack after the home team set up an imposing first innings total, then struggled to exploit what was meant to be spin friendly conditions.
New Zealand appeared to have done their homework on the unpredictable Galle track, but it worked in their first stint before the wheels came off. Unlike the norm of spin determining the outcome, New Zealand’s pace attack dominated Sri Lanka’s batters through O’Rourke and Ajaz Patel the latter grabbing 6 wickets in Sri Lanka’s second effort.
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As expected, the wicket in Galle deteriorated on day four to swing the scales in Sri Lanka’s favour when Prabath Jayasuriya spearheaded Sri Lanka’s spin quartet with nine wickets in the match and aided by Ramesh Mendis (6 wickets) and skipper Dhananjaya de Silva (3 wickets), the visitors collapsed dramatically to be bowled out for 211 in what at one stage appeared a gettable target.
It was even Stevens on the first two days when Sri Lanka batted first and made 305 all out squandering a good start then losing a bigger total to which New Zealand surprised them with 340 giving them a 35 run lead. Kamindu Mendis batted with authority scoring 114, continuing his rich recent form aided by half centuries by Pathum Nissanka and Kusal Mendis.
New Zealand speedster William O’Rourke grabbed 5 fo55 to complete a successful bag of eight wickets for the match.
Sri Lanka batted again and the familiar trend of a bottom order collapse saw them make 309 all out leaving New Zealand with a target of 274 for victory. They were on track for a while before the unpredictable track saw them fold in a flurry of wickets and predictable fashion to give the home side a fighting victory.
Dimuth Karunaratne found timely form in the second innings with a polished 83 and aided by veterans Dinesh Chandimal 61 and Angelo Matthews 50 and Skipper Dhananjaya de Silva 40, swelled Sri Lanka’s lead to a winnable score.
