New Zealand got a thrilling win against visiting Sri Lanka in the Christchurch Test. Kane Williamson’s brilliant century saw the Kiwis beat the Lankans by 2 wickets on the last ball of the fifth day of the first Test of the two-match series. With that, the Black Caps took a 1-0 lead in the series.
Sri Lanka set New Zealand a target of 285 runs on the fourth day. In reply, at the end of the fourth day, New Zealand scored 28 runs for 1 wicket in 17 overs. Tom Latham was unbeaten on 11 and Williamson on 7.
New Zealand needed 257 runs on the last day to win the Test. On the other hand, Sri Lanka needed 9 wickets. But the Test was affected by rain from the beginning of the fifth day. The match started after 5 hours due to rain. The match managers decided to play at least 53 overs.
Latham was dismissed for an individual 25 runs after playing at noon on the fifth day. Williamson added 41 runs with Latham. Williamson added 40 with Henry Nicholls for the third wicket and 142 runs with Daryl Mitchell for the fourth wicket playing 157 balls. New Zealand began to dream of victory with the pair of Mitchell-Williamson.
Mitchell, who scored a century in the first innings, was dismissed for 81 runs. His 86-ball innings had 3 fours and 4 sixes. Williamson scored his 27th century in a 93-match Test career after Mitchell returned as the fourth batsman for the team’s 232 runs. After that New Zealand lost 4 more wickets. Kiwis lost the eighth wicket for 280 runs.
In the end, Williamson gave New Zealand a historic victory with a bye in the last over of the day’s play, i.e. the last ball of the 53rd over. Williamson remained unbeaten on 121 runs off 194 balls with 11 fours and 1 six.
Asitha Fernando took maximum three wickets for Sri Lanka. Apart from this, Prabhath Jayasuriya got two wickets. Meanwhile, Mitchell became the man of the match after scoring 102 runs in the first innings and 81 runs in the second innings.
(13 March/MM)