Sri Lanka’s bowlers ripped through New Zealand’s top order, including snaring Kane Williamson’s main wicket, to leave the troubled hosts at 162-5 after the second day of the first Test on Friday. After posting a competitive 355 on the green Hagley Oval wicket in Christchurch, Sri Lanka gave the New Zealand chase a soft start before gaining momentum. A productive burst on either side of the tea break from Asitha Fernando and Lahiru Kumara claimed Devon Conway, Williamson and Henry Nicholls as New Zealand fell from 67 with no loss to 76-3.
A pin-point Fernando yorker then rejected opener Tom Latham for 67 before Kasun Rajitha took care of Tom Blundell for seven.
Daryl Mitchell was on 40 at stumps with Michael Bracewell on nine, but New Zealand were still 193 behind.
Sri Lanka need to beat the series to keep their World Test Championship hopes alive.
Their ambition was clear as they celebrated every wicket and single saved.
Fernando, guilty of wandering down the leg side too many times in his opening spell, came back to catch Conway lbw for 30.
Three overs later, Kumara captured Williamson’s plum wicket for one on the last ball before tea and took two for Nicholls shortly after the restart.
The Sri Lankans celebrated the wicket of Williamson, New Zealand’s most prolific runscorer and the hero of the recent dramatic one-run victory over England.
With the tea break beckoning, he was tempted into an unusually large cover drive, but couldn’t get the ball over Dimuth Karunaratne.
Nicholls, with a question mark over his Test future, had faced just six balls when a rash attempt to pull Kumara to the boundary caught him mid-wicket.
Latham pressed on to bring up his 27th half-century and looked good until he was bowled by Fernando.
Sri Lanka had frustrated New Zealand from the start of the day as they resumed 305-6 and added another 50 as they extended the innings with another 17 overs.
Overnight pairing of Dhananjaya de Silva and Rajitha took 11 from the morning’s opening before skipper Tim Southee went on the attack, trailing De Silva for 46.
When the new ball was due Matt Henry had Rajitha caught at halfway for 22 and New Zealand felt the end was near.
But Prabath Jayasuriya and Lahiru Kumara, while adding only five runs, took 38 deliveries for the ninth wicket.
Henry eventually had Jayasuriya trailing for 13, leaving Kumara (13 not out) and Fernando (10) to add another 19 runs from 26 deliveries for the last wicket.
For New Zealand, Southee finished 5-64 and Henry 4-80.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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