Agencies
It was a tale of two bowlers, and thankfully for New Zealand, at least two partnerships on a day dominated by the home spinners in Galle. Prabath Jayasuriya bagged 6 for 42, and debutant offspinner Nishan Peiris took 3 for 33, as Sri Lanka spun New Zealand out for 88, their lowest all-out total against Sri Lanka, in the first innings.
After securing a mammoth 514-run lead, Dhananjaya de Silva made New Zealand follow on.
They lost a wicket in the first over in their second innings, but Devon Conway came out all guns blazing after lunch, and along with an enterprising Kane Williamson, added an entertaining 97 off 108 balls.
Jayasuriya, Peiris and Dhananjaya then fashioned a collapse - New Zealand’s second on the day - in a period where Sri Lanka bagged 4 for 24. But, on the other side of that slide, Tom Blundell and Glenn Phillips chose to counterattack before bad light and rain combined to bring an early end to the third day’s play.
Blundell (47*) and Phillips (32*) added an undefeated 78 off just 84 balls for the sixth wicket, pumping two sixes each on the way. They had joined hands just before tea - Peiris had cleaned Rachin Ravindra up with a beautiful delivery turning away - and took the attacking route three overs into the final session.
Blundell launched Peiris for two big sixes in the 33rd over, both times by stepping out and going down the ground.
Phillips, meanwhile, ticked along at the other end with regular singles and twos, looking assured at the crease against both left-arm spin and offspin. He belted Peiris for a six over long-on in the 37th over and Blundell decided to keep counterpunching with successive fours over Jayasuriya’s head in the 38th. That brought up the fifty stand in 62 balls.
Blundell reverse swept Peiris for four, and Phillips launched another six down the ground in what turned out to be the final over of the day. Eventually, though, New Zealand were still 315 runs behind Sri Lanka.
Conway had hit back at Sri Lanka with plenty of attacking shots in the afternoon session. He smashed 61 at just short of a run a ball, in what his first Test half-century in 11 innings since March 2023. He hit ten boundaries and a six during his knock, and employed both sweeps - the conventional and the reverse - against the spinners, and earned the rewards too. Of those 19 shots, he got 33 runs, including six boundaries.
But Conway’s innings ended when he looked to loft Dhananjaya over extra cover, as Dinesh Chandimal, who was stationed there, turned around, ran, and grabbed the ball as it dropped over his shoulders. By then, Williamson had chugged along steadily, keeping himself busy running between the wickets, and by hitting the occasional boundary.
Peiris removed Williamson on 46 in the 23rd over, courtesy another well-judged catch. Soon after, New Zealand also lost Daryl Mitchell, who chipped one off Jayasuriya to an alert Pathum Nissanka at short leg, and Ravindra. But Blundell and Phillips’s partnership, along with the weather, took the game into the fourth day, a prospect that seemed unlikely when Jayasuriya and Peiris ran through New Zealand’s line-up in the morning.
ScorescColor:> New Zealand 88 (Santner 29, Jayasuriya 6-42, Peiris 3-33) & 199 for 5 (Conway 61, Blundell 47*, Phillips 32*, Peiris 3-91) trail Sri Lanka 602 for 5 declared by 315 runs.
