Half-centuries from Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis and valuable contributions from middle-order helped visitors Sri Lanka fare well against New Zealand seamers in overcast conditions at Hagley Oval, Christchurch on Day 1 of the first Test. Before bad light stopped play, Sri Lanka were able to post 305/6 on the board from 75 overs.
Tim Southee won the toss and opted to bowl first. While the final run rate of the day was little over four runs per over, Sri Lanka did not exactly adopt the Bazball-like approach. In the first hour, the openers were cautious but Southee managed to force an edge off Oshada Fernando's over in his fourth over with the new ball. Karunaratne and Mendis were quiet in the first hour as only 27 runs were scored.
But conditions were not as threatening as they looked from afar. The ball was not swinging big which forced New Zealand pacers to bowl full and often on the stumps. Karunaratne and Mendis took advantage of the conditions and accumulated runs at a good pace in the second hour. Mendis took on Southee, Wagner and got to his half-century from just 41 balls, the fastest by a visiting batter on New Zealand soil. At the end of first session, Sri Lanka had 120 runs on the board from 24 overs with Mendis almost striking at over 140.
In the second session, Kiwi pacers corrected their length and beat the bat often. Southee broke the second-wicket partnership. The sharp movement beat Mendis who was ready to shoulder arms and let the ball go to wicketkeeper Tom Blundell. The ball hit him on the pads and umpire raised his finger. Mendis scored 87 off 83 balls including 16 fours.
In the next over, Matt Henry got the wicket of Karunaratne who had just completed his half-century. The southpaw went for a full-bloodied drive but managed to edge it to Tom Latham at second slip. He scored 50 runs from 87 deliveries including seven fours. Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal struggled but managed to keep the dangerous one out. After much defending, Chandimal hit Blair Tickner for three consecutive fours to wrap up the second session with 209/3 on the board.
Chandimal was heading towards his half-century but he went for a drive and edged it to second slip fielder Latham. Chandimal scored 39 runs from 64 deliveries including six fours. It was Southee’s 362nd scalp in Test cricket making him the second-highest wicket-taker in Tests for New Zealand, only behind Richard Hadlee (431 wickets).
Mathews missed out on his half-century as well but managed to reach a milestone before edging one to Daryl Mitchell at first slip off Henry’s bowling. Mathews surpassed former Sri Lankan opener Sanath Jayasuriya’s tally of runs (6,973 runs). He also became the third Sri Lankan batter after Kumar Sangakkara (12,400 runs) and Mahela Jayawardene (11,814 runs) to score 7,000 or more runs in Test cricket.
As Neil Wagner, the hero of New Zealand's historic one-run victory against England, had a bad day at the office conceding 68 runs from 10 overs, Michael Bracewel was introduced into the attack. Bracewell delivered the wicket of wicketkeeper-batter Niroshan Dickwella in his first over. Dickwella (7) was trapped in front of the stumps while attempting to sweep a fuller delivery. Dhananjaya de Silva (39) and Kasun Rajitha (16) looked to score quickly and got Sri Lanka's score past 300 before bad light played spoilsport.
Sri Lanka have made a good start in the first Test in an attempt to keep their hopes of reaching the World Test Championship (WTC) final hopes alive. They need to pull off a miracle and win both Tests. In addition, they will hope that India lose the last Test of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023.
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