Kusal Mendis and captain Dimuth Karunaratne scored half-centuries as Sri Lanka reached 305 for six before bad light brought stumps early on Day I of the first Test against New Zealand on Thursday.
It was a positive day at the batting crease for the Lankans, who can reach the World Test Championship final if they sweep the Black Caps in the two-Test series and Australia deny India victory in the fourth Test in Ahmedabad.
New Zealand captain Tim Southee won the toss and put his bowlers to work on a green-tinged pitch at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval.
But it backfired as Mendis and Karunaratne put on a 137- run stand for the second wicket. Fast bowler Southee broke the partnership by dismissing Mendis lbw for 87 from 83 balls when the No.3 declined to offer a shot.
Southee also had opener Oshada Fernando caught down the leg-side for 13 and Dinesh Chandimal caught in the slips for 39 to be the pick of the bowlers on a frustrating day for the hosts.
No.6 Dhananjaya de Silva was batting on 39 along with tail-ender Kasun Rajitha on 16 when play was abandoned late in the final session.
Pacer Matt Henry took two wickets, having Karunaratne (50) and all-rounder Angelo Mathews (47) each caught in the slips. He was unlucky not to have more, though, as he and Southee beat the bat repeatedly in the morning.
“It’s always a frustrating day when you’re, I suppose, beating the bat like that,” said Henry. “We’ve just got to be a little bit better for longer because there was a period there that hurt us a bit.”
Southee feat
When Dinesh Chandimal was caught by Tom Latham off Southee for 39 it was the New Zealand captain’s 362nd wicket, taking him past Daniel Vettori into second place on their all-time list of Test wicket-takers behind Richard Hadlee (431). Southee also passed Vettori’s mark of 705 to become New Zealand’s leading wicket-taker across all three formats.
Bangla win T20I opener
Chittagong: Bangladesh’s Najmul Hossain Shanto scored a half-century before all-rounder Shakib-al Hasan got the hosts over the line for a six-wicket win against Twenty20 world champions England on Thursday to kick off their three-match series.
Put into bat, England looked to be in control when openers Jos Buttler (67) and Phil Salt stitched together an 80-run partnership, but Buttler received little support as the visitors were restricted to 156/6.
Hasan Mahmud was the pick of the bowlers for Bangladesh as he took two wickets, while four of his teammates claimed a wicket apiece.
After a brief opening stand between Litton Das and Rony Talukdar, Shanto (51) combined with debutant Towhid Hridoy for 65 runs to give Bangladesh some momentum. Shakib came to their rescue again, scoring 34 off 24 in a calm knock under pressure.
Brief scores: England 156/6 in 20 (Phil Salt 38, Jos Buttler 67). Bangladesh 158/4 in 18 (Najmul Shanto 51, Shakib-al Hasan 34 not out). Bangladesh won by 6 wickets.
