After taking over the first day with the bat of Karunaratne-Mendis, Sri Lanka had a great tour on the second day too thanks to the welfare of the bowlers. At the end of the second day, New Zealand scored 162 runs, losing 5 wickets. Earlier, the Lankans scored 355 runs. As a result, the Kiwis are still behind by 193 runs.
The host New Zealand got off to a great start by batting in their first innings. 67 runs came from the opening pair. Opener Devon Conway was trapped lbw for a personal 30 by Asitha Fernando. The team leader Kane Williamson returned to Sajghar with only 1 run in the next wicket. Later, Henry Nichols returned for 2 runs.
The host New Zealand suddenly lost three wickets and was under a lot of pressure. Later, the fourth wicket pair of openers Tom Latham and Darrell Mitchell handled the pressure. At this time, the two made a pair of 58 runs. Latham hits a personal half-century. Asitha was bowled by Fernando for a personal 67 runs.
Tom Blundell fell victim to Kasun Rajitha on the next wicket. Only 7 runs come from his bat. Nicholls then took Mitchell Bracewell with him at the end of the day. At the end of the day, Nicholls remained unbeaten on 40 off 89 balls and Bracewell on 9 off 18 balls.
Earlier in the day, Dhananjaya de Silva and Kasun Rajitha, the two unbeaten batsmen of the previous day, came to bat for Sri Lanka. In the first session of the second day, the Lankans managed to score 50 runs for the last four wickets. Silva 46, Rajitha 22, Jayasuriya 13 and Fernando 10 runs. Kumara remained unbeaten on 13 runs.
(10 March/MM)