The trio - Hadlee, Reid and Coney stunned the Lankans!

By A. C. De Silva

FLASHBACK: New Zealand who beat England in the home series in March 1984, won its second away series 2-nil when they thrashed Sri Lanka by an innings and 61 runs at the Colombo Cricket Club grounds in the match played on March 24, 25, 27, 28 and 29.

Earlier, New Zealand won the first Test by 165 runs in Kandy, the second ended in a draw.

It was the pace bowling of Kiwi Richard Hadlee that had the Sri Lankans cornered. He had a match-bag of 10 wickets for 102 runs getting 5 for 73 in the first innings and 5 for 29 in the second innings.

Hadlee bowled in short spells and in those skirt spells he had the Lankan batsmen shaken. In the third Test, Hadlee had a match-bag of 10 wickets on a slow wicket. Hadlee with a smooth flowing action was able to extract much bounce off the wicket which no other bowler was able to do.

Hadlee - the pick of bowlers

While Hadlee was the pick of the Kiwi bowlers, in the department of batting it was John Reid - the schoolmaster who taught the Sri Lankan batsmen the real meaning of the word PATIENCE. Reid who was recalled to the side after three years, made his highest Test and first-class score when he made that majestic knock of 180 which helped New Zealand to a match-winning total of 459. He batted for 11 hours and 24 minutes. His previous highest Test score was 123 not out against India at Christchurch in the 1980-81 series, while his previous best in first-class cricket was 173 for Auckland against Northern Districts at Hamilton in 1980-81.

Reid's century was a memorable one as it was the first by a Kiwi batsman against Sri Lanka and Reid who was 28 years then, established two record partnerships. With Martin Crowe (45), Reid added 100 runs for the third wicket which erased the earlier record 92 by Pakistanis Moshin Khan and Javed Miandad at Faisalabad in 1982.

Reid and Jeremy Coney (92) added 133 runs in 243 minutes for the sixth wicket which lowered the 100 runs stand at Lahore between Zaheer Abbas and Imran Khan in 1982.

Reid, who faced 436 balls during his long innings had seventeen 4s while Coney was unfortunate to miss his second century in 30 Tests by just eight runs. Coney batted for 303 minutes and faced 210 balls. He scored eight 4s. He was named 'Man of the Match'.

Kiwi batsmen sparkled

Before the Kiwis batsmen sparkled, it was Sri Lanka who batted first and they were in somewhat a poor state with five wickets down for 63 runs and at that stage the elegant batsman Ranjan Madugalle (89) and under-23 cricketer then Arjuna Ranatunga (37) were associated in a face-saving partnership of 109 runs, which was a record for the sixth wicket for Sri Lanka. The previous record was 89 made by Duleep Mendis and Anura Ranasinghe against India at Madras in 1982.

But this sixth-wicket partnership was halted by a vicious Hadlee delivery struck Madugalle. The Sri Lankan Madugalle retired at 87 and though he came to bat the following day, he ran short of partners and missed his century by 11 runs, being 89 not out when Sri Lanka were all out for 256 in the first innings. Madugalle batted for 218 minutes and faced 168 balls and he tucked into his knock 14 fours.

Sri Lanka had a deficit of 203 runs on the first innings and they were somewhat unfortunate in one of their star batsmen - Roy Dias being unable to bat owing to a cut on his left palm and Sri Lanka were finally dismissed for 142 runs in the second innings and New Zealand won the match with Hadlee being the destructive bowler.

There was some consolation for the Sri Lankans as wicket-keeper Guy de Alwis set up a wicket-keeping record for nine dismissals (8 catches and 1 stumping) beating Mahes Goonetilleke's record of eight dismissals (6 catches and 2 stumping) against Pakistan in 1982.

Richard Hadlee - the star bowler with that match haul of 23 wickets in the three Test series, was named 'Man of the Series'.

		SCOREBOARD

SRI LANKA – 1ST INNINGS
S. Wettimuny b Hadlee	  			04
S. Kaluperuma b Hgadlee	 			16
J.R. Ratnayake lbw b Hadlee	  		00
R.L. Dias c Smith b Chatfield	 		10
D. Mendis c J. Crowe Chatfield	 		19
R. Madugalle not out	 			89
A. Ranatunga c sub (Edgar) b Chatfield	 	37
D.S. De Silva c Smith b Hadlee	 		17
Guy de Alwis c Boock b Hadlee	 		28
J. Amerasinghe c Wright b Chatfield	 	15
V. John c and b Chatfield	 		12
Extras (lb-4), (nb-5)	  			09
Total					       256

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-4, 3-22, 4-32, 5-63, 6-182
		 7-222, 8-227, 9-249
Bowling: R.J. Hadlee 22-4-73-5
	 E.J. Chatfield 22-5-63-5
	 M.D. Crowe 9-2-22-0
	 S.L. Boock 2—9-51.0
	 J. Baracewell 8-2-31-0
	 J. Coney 3-0-7-0

NEW ZELAND – 1ST INNINGS
G.P. Howarth lbw b Ratnayake	  		07
J.G. Wright c De Alwis b Ratnayake	 	18
J.F. Reid c and b Amerasinghe		       180
M.D. Crowe c De Alwis b Ratnayake	 	45
S.L. Boock b John	 			35
J.J. Crowe lbw b John	 			18
J.V. Coney c De Alwis b Amerasinghe	 	92
R.J. Hadlee c Kaluperuma b De Silva	  	00
I.D.S. Smith b John	 			42
J.J. Bracowell c Kaluperuma b De Silva	  	00
E.J. Chatfield not out	  			01
Extras (b-4, lb-10, nb-5, w-2)	 		21
Total					       459

Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-23, 3-132, 4-214, 5-253
		 6-386, 7-391, 8-429, 9-436
Bowling: V. John 37-8-99-3
	 J.R. Ratnayake 40-9-128-3
	 A. Ranatunga 16-5-18-0
	 D.S. De Silva 42-4-95-2
	 J. Amerasinghe 30-4-73-2
	 S. Kaluperuma 10-2-25-0

SRI LANKA – 2ND INNINGS
S. Wettimuny c Coney b Hadlee	   		02
S. Kaluperuma c Coney b Hadlee	  		18
J.R. Rtnayake b Boock	   			02
R.L. Dias  absent – injured	   		00
D. Mendis b Boock	  			10
R. Madugalle  c Wright b Bracowell	  	38
A. Ranatunge c Wright b Boock	  		50
D.S. De Silva c Smith b Hadlee	   		01
Guy de Alwis c Bracowell b Hadlee	  	10
J. Amerasinghe b Hadlee	   			05
John not out	   				00
Extras (lb-1, nb-5)	   			06
Total	 				       142

Fall of Wickets : 1-6, 2-63, 3-63, 4-79, 5-101
		  6-105, 7-136, 8-138, 9-142
Bowling: R.J. Hadlee 16-7-29-5
	 E.J. Chatfield 9-2-27-0
	 M.D. Crowe 5-2-13-0
	 S.L. Boock 16-2-32-3
	 J. Bracewell 11-4-36-1