On Day 4 of Wellington Test between New Zealand and Sri Lanka, the winds were strong that the off-spinner Michael Bracewell did not need to bowl a doosra to take the ball away from right-handed batter. The winds also reminded cricket fans of old days as it forced single end coverage, something which used to happen in the old days of cricket broadcasting.
The incident took place in the 121st over of Sri Lanka's second innings. Prabath Jayasuriya was on the strike. Bracewell tossed one up but the force of wind was so extreme that it drifted the other way and went outside the pitch. Kiwi wicketkeeper Tom Blundell had to stretch to his right to save the extra run. The amount of drift also surprised commentators as they witnessed the unusual incident.
The high winds also led to broadcaster switching to single end coverage as the cameraperson had to climb down from the elevated area where coverage was no more possible.
“For those watching at home, the @sparknzsport camera crew have had to come down from the camera tower at the Adelaide Road end of the Basin Reserve due to extremely high winds in Wellington,” BlackCaps wrote in a tweet.
Apart from the strong winds, it was not an exciting day as New Zealand won the match by an innings and 58 runs to clean sweep Dimuth Karunaratne-led Sri Lanka in a two-Test series. After a nerve-wracking finish in Christchurch to win the Test off the final ball, New Zealand dominated the proceedings in Wellington.
While following on, four Sri Lankan batters -- Karunaratne (50), Kusal Mendis (50), Dinesh Chandimal (62) and Dhananjaya de Silva (98) -- but Sri Lanka managed to post 358 on the board. Skipper Tim Southee and Blair Tickner took three wickets each. Bracewell took two wickets whereas Matt Henry and Doug Bracewell took one wicket each.
In their first innings, Karunaratne kept running out of partners and visitors got all out for 164. New Zealand were dominate with bat in the first innings. Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls' double centuries helped the hosts post 580/4 before declaring.
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