END OF OVER:72 | 5 Runs | NZ: 255/4
- Tom Blundell18 (52b)
- Daryl Mitchell41 (60b)
- Prabath Jayasuriya31-3-99-1
- Ramesh Mendis17-1-69-1
5:55pm That will be all from us for today. Madushka's report will be up shortly and that should help you recount everything that happened on day two. We will be back again tomorrow, nice and early, with play scheduled to start fifteen minutes prior at 9:45am local time. Until then, this is goodbye from Madushka, Raghav and myself. Take care!
5:50pm A tough, grueling day of Test cricket, which New Zealand will be happier about. They began by skittling Sri Lanka out early and their openers then gave them a good start, mustering a 62-run stand. Latham got to fifty, as did Williamson and that handed the visitors a sense of control. A quick two-wicket salvo, though, including the scalps of Ravindra and Williamson pegged the Kiwis back, only for Blundell and Mitchell to stand tall, like they have often done in months gone by. They now trail by just 50 runs and with Phillips and Santner still to come, will feel they can fashion a sizeable advantage come day three.
An indifferent day at the office for Sri Lanka. Their spinners struggled to find the right lines and lengths throughout. Dhananjaya de Silva was the most successful of the spinners, bagging a brace but the lack of consistency (and penetration) of Ramesh and Jayasuriya will have left the hosts with more than a furrowed brow. Their usage of pace also left a bit to be desired and the general feeling is that they will now have to play catch-up early tomorrow, hoping to trigger a collapse. 5:49pm The umpires are chatting to themselves and have asked the fourth umpire to bring out the light meter. Okay, looks like the players are indeed coming off now, and that will be stumps on day two.
END OF OVER:71 | 1 Run | NZ: 250/4
- Tom Blundell14 (47b)
- Daryl Mitchell40 (59b)
- Ramesh Mendis17-1-69-1
- Prabath Jayasuriya30-3-94-1