Kane Williamson (Photo Source: Twitter)
Kane Williamson’s masterclass and Daryl Mitchell’s heroics helped New Zealand pull off an unbelievable record chase in the first Test against Sri Lanka at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch. New Zealand defeated Sri Lanka and not only dented their hopes of qualifying to the WTC finals, but also confirmed a WTC final berth for India.
Speaking about how the game panned out, New Zealand won the toss and opted to bowl first to make use of the overcast conditions. Tim Southee, with no disappointment stuck early in the game taking the wicket of Oshado Fernando. Kusal Mendis and captain Dimuth Karunaratne together added 137 runs for the second wicket. Mendis amassed 87 runs at a strike rate of 104.82 with the help of 16 fours.
Experienced players in Angelo Matthews, Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya de silva also chipped in with runs helping Sri Lanka post 355 in the first innings. For New Zealand, Tim Southee picked up five wickets and Matt Henry picked up four wickets. In response, the Kiwis lost their top order early and were left reeling at 76/3 inside 36 overs. Tom Latham played with patience as he notched up his 27th half-century. Asitha Fernando bowled a peach to send back Latham.
Daryl Mitchell took the reins from thereon as he displayed a classical performance to bring up his 5th Test ton. A handy 72 run-knock from Matt Henry down the order helped New Zealand lead Sri Lanka by 18 runs in the first innings. Asitha Fernando picked up four wickets for the Lankans.
Starting the second innings with a 18 run deficit, Sri Lanka’s top-order fell soon to Tickner’s dominance. Angelo Matthews and Dinesh Chandimal added 105 runs for the fifth wicket to help Sri Lanka earn a valuable lead to defend. Mathews smashed his 14th Test ton, while Chandimal looked solid with his 42-run contribution. Dhananjaya de silva scored a handy 47 in the end helping Sri Lanka set a target of 285.
Chasing 285 on the rain-affected Day 5, New Zealand lost their top-three wickets inside 36 overs and were wobbling at 90/3 until the hero of the first innings, Daryl Mitchell entered. Daryl Mitchell along with Williamson put together 142 runs for the fourth wicket with Mitchell playing positive cricket as he scored 81 runs at a brisk pace. Kane Williamson’s impeccable 27th Test ton helped New Zealand pull off a heist, as they beat Sri Lanka on the last ball of the match with two wickets to spare.
Let us look at the stats and numbers from the first Test between New Zealand and Sri Lanka:
3 – Angelo Matthews (7115) became the third Sri Lankan player after Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene to score 7000 runs in Tests and also became the third leading run scorer for Sri Lanka in Tests, surpassing Sanath Jayasuriya’s tally of 6973.
11 – Dinesh Chandimal (5017) became the eleventh Sri Lankan player to complete 5000 Test runs.
1 -Tim Southee (710) is now the leading wicket-taker for New Zealand across formats surpassing Daniel Vettori’s tally of 705.
40 – Kane Williamson now has 40 international hundreds which is the joint most hundreds by a New Zealand batter across formats, equalling Ross Taylor’s tally.
7 – Angelo Matthews became the seventh player to smash 14000 international runs for Sri Lanka.
6 – Angelo Matthews (14098) surpassed Marvan Atapattu’s tally of 14036 and became the sixth leading run-getter for Sri Lanka combining all formats.
4 – Kane Williamson recorded his fourth Test century in the fourth innings of a Test match. This the joint second most number of hundreds in the fourth innings of a Test Match. Younis Khan tops the list with 5 centuries.
285 – New Zealand chased the target of 285, which is the highest run chase in a Test match at the Hagley Oval, Christchurch bettering the previous best chase of 201 by Australia in 2016.
For a better experience: Download the CricTracker app from the IOS App Store and Google Play Store