Half-centuries from Kusal Mendis and Dimuth Karunaratne helped Sri Lanka take a commanding 305 for six on the opening day of the first Test against New Zealand here on Thursday.
Mendis scored 87 while skipper Karunaratne scored 50 and shared a crucial 137-run partnership for the second wicket. However, only 75 overs could be bowled during the day’s play.
At the end of the day’s play, Dhananjay D’Silva was playing on 39 while Kasun Rajita was supporting him by scoring 16 runs.
New Zealand captain Tim Southee won the toss and decided to bowl after seeing the grass on the pitch. The Sri Lankan team scored only 27 runs in the first hour and during this time lost the wicket of Oshada Fernando (13) who was caught by Southee at the hands of wicketkeeper Tom Blundell.
Mendis showed composure as soon as he came to the crease and completed his 16th half-century in just 40 balls as Sri Lanka reached 120 for one at lunch.
Mendis and Karunaratne took the score to 151 for one wicket but after that both were dismissed on the same score. Mendis was lbw by Southee while Matt Henry had Karunaratne caught by Tom Latham. Mendis hit 16 fours in his 83-ball knock while Karunaratne’s 87-ball knock included seven fours.
Angelo Mathews (47) and Dinesh Chandimal (39) put on 82 runs for the fourth wicket after a slow start. Southee once again broke the dangerous looking partnership by dismissing Chandimal at the hands of Latham.
It was Southee’s 362nd Test wicket and he overtook Daniel Vettori to become the second most successful New Zealand Test bowler. Only Richard Hadlee (431) has more Test wickets than him.
Southee also became New Zealand’s most successful bowler in all three formats, surpassing Vettori’s 705 wickets.
Mathews also managed to complete 7000 runs in Test cricket on a score of 47 runs. On this score, he was caught by Latham in the second slip off Henry’s ball.
Spinner Michael Bracewell lbw Niroshan Dickwella (07) to score 268 for six wickets.
Dhananjay and Rajita, however, did not let Sri Lanka suffer further setbacks after this.
