Watch cricket video highlights of New Zealand tour of Sri Lanka 2024. First Test between SL and NZ. Venue of the match will be Galle.
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Along with the wicket of Devon Conway before lunch, Sri Lanka took three crucial wickets in the form of Kane Williamson, Tom Latham, and Daryl Mitchell to keep the game evenly balanced as the sides headed to tea on day three in Galle. Despite New Zealand’s best efforts to chip away at their target of 275, they managed to score 101 runs in the post-lunch session. All three of Sri Lanka’s spin options participated in the action, emphasizing how dangerous the surface is becoming.
Rachin Ravindra and Tom Blundell were at the crease, their partnership still in its infancy at 18 off 27, but on a wicket that was getting harder to play on and where dust clouds were appearing more often, the remaining 161 runs needed to win may still seem far away. During the initial portion of the session, however, New Zealand’s strategy had the upper hand. Latham and Williamson were both eager to sweep and use their feet to make sure the spinners didn’t have it all their own way, even though Prabath Jayasuriya and Ramesh Mendis were constant in their lines and length.
Throughout, Williamson in especially was quite active, stepping out to reach the ball at times and slipping deep into the crease at other times. The highlight of the practice was a lofted six off Jayasuriya over extra cover with the spin, which was promptly followed by a magnificent cover drive. But after witnessing Williamson step out one too many times, the left-arm fingerspinner from Sri Lanka would have the final laugh. He dragged one shorter and turned it past a startled forward defence as Kusal Mendis snapped off the bails.
That was quite the change of events, leaving Williamson momentarily perplexed. He waved his hands at the pitch and fled. That ended a potentially disastrous 45-run stand between two players who had done a great deal of damage in the first innings. After being caught in front by an arm ball from Dhananjaya de Silva, Mitchell was called to the crease and Latham was the next to fall. Undoubtedly, Sri Lanka was eager to get rid of him before he could cause any significant harm, and they were granted their desire when one of Ramesh’s shots bounced back from the outside.
Mitchell, who had retreated to make a cut, was just able to see as the ball whirled around his rear pad and ultimately sliced through his upper leg. In their brief encounter prior to the interval, Blundell and Rachin were optimistic; but, Sri Lanka has demonstrated that a ball bearing your name is not far away. All that remains is for New Zealand to emerge victorious in the race and eliminate the remaining runs. Earlier in the day, New Zealand ended the Lankan second innings in the morning session, costing Sri Lanka six wickets for 72 runs.
The session’s most impressive player was without a doubt Ajaz Patel, who took five wickets in just over an hour to end with figures of 6 for 90. With the second new ball, Will O’Rourke bowled a somewhat off-colour stint and finished with figures of 3 for 49.
