Lankans on course for clean sweep

Chris DHAMBARAGE

Sri Lanka were well set to wrap up a two nil series triumph after having set the visiting New Zealand team a huge fourth innings victory target on the penultimate day of the second and final cricket Test match which continued at the SSC ground in Maitland Place yesterday.

The Sri Lankan bowlers were able to make early inroads into the New Zealand batting as they reduced them to 182 for 6 wickets after having set them an impossible 494 runs for victory.

In fact Sri Lanka could have cleaned up the Kiwi tail on the fourth day itself had skipper Kumar Sangakkara declared the second innings much earlier.

Nevertheless there was plenty of time for Rangana Herath to make his presence felt with a fine exhibition of left arm spin bowling. After being left out from the opening Test match in Galle, Herath have struck form with a vengeance and has already claimed four wickets following his 3 for 70 in the first innings.

Herath never allowed the Black Caps to settle in and had them guessing all the time with a great amount of bounce and turn. In fact he had success in his very first delivery of the second innings and finished the day with excellent figures of 4 for 73 from 21 overs.

The only brief moment that New Zealand looked like coming out of trouble was when the pair of Daniel Flynn and Ross Taylor were involved in a third wicket partnership of 56 runs. Left hander Flynn had the satisfaction of completing a half century from 93 deliveries.

But thereafter New Zealand lost wickets at regular intervals as Sri Lanka put themselves in contention for their second successive home series victory following their two nil triumph against Pakistan.

Earlier Sri Lanka delayed their declaration and went on to bat few minutes after lunch before eventually setting New Zealand the daunting task of surviving the two sessions and the entire final day.

The main reason for extending their stay at the crease for such a long period was because Mahela Jayawardena was in line for another World record of scoring the most number of hundreds on a single ground.

The former Sri Lanka captain was well set to overtake legendary Australian Sir Don Bradman who had nine centuries to his credit at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

Jayawardena with the same number of centuries fell short by a mere four runs from achieving his goal. Jayawardena who made 92 in the first innings was snapped up again by the same bowler Ian O’Brien in another coincidence after having added a magnificent 173 runs for the third wicket together with Kumar Sangakkara. The Sri Lankan captain of course did not miss out a second opportunity as he raced to his 20th century and the third for the current year from 164 deliveries inclusive of one six and eleven boundaries.

Sangakkara reached the 90’s with two cracking cover drives off Jesse Ryder and departed shortly before the lunch interval while attempting to accelerate the scoring rate. Jayawardena too started the day in style wile hoisting Jeetan Patel for a six in the very first over.

The middle order batsman went pass England’s Andrew Strauss as the highest run getter for 2009 while playing in his eighth Test match. Samaraweera now has a tally of 1083 runs ahead of Strauss who has collected 1071 runs from 12 matches.

SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS - 	416
NEW ZEALAND - 1ST INNINGS - 	234

		
	SRI LANKA - 2ND INNINGS
   	   (overnight 157-2)

T. Dilshan c Guptill b Patel 		 33
T. Paranavitana c McCullum b Vettori 	 34
K. Sangakkara c Taylor b Patel 		109
M. Jayawardene c Taylor b O’Brien 	 96
T. Samaraweera lbw b Vettori 		 25
C. Kapugedera not out 			 07
Extras (lb1, w2, nb4) 			 07
Total (for 5 wkts decl) 		311

Fall of wickets: 1-56 (Dilshan), 2-89 (Paranavitana), 3-262. (Sangakkara), 
		4-301 (Samaraweera), 5-311 (Jayawardene).

Bowling: Vettori 24-4-62-2, O’Brien 15.2-1-77-1 (nb3, w1), Martin 
		9-0-34-0 (w1), Patel 34-2-122-2, Ryder 3-0-15-0 (nb1).

		NEW ZEALAND - 2ND INNINGS

T. McIntosh b Prasad 			 07
M. Guptill c P. Jayawardene b Herath 	 28
D. Flynn lbw b Herath 			 50
R. Taylor c M. Jayawardene b Herath 	 27
J. Ryder lbw b Herath 			 38
B. McCullum b Muralitharan 		 13
J. Oram not out 			 07
D. Vettori not out 			 05
Extras (lb6, nb1) 			 07
Total (for 6 wkts) 			182

Fall of wickets: 1-36 (McIntosh), 2-41 (Guptill), 3-97 (Taylor), 4-131 
		(Flynn), 5-158 (McCullum), 6-176 (Ryder).

Bowling: Paranavitana 1-0-2-0, Thushara 14-1-39-0 (nb1), Prasad 
		7-1-21-1, Herath 21-5-73-4, Muralitharan 12-0-39-1, Dilshan 1-0-2-0.