Herath Spins New Zealand Out For 221 In Galle

Herath Spins New Zealand Out For 221 In Galle

Rangana Herath celebrates the wicket of Daniel Flynn on the opening day in Galle.

©REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte. Picture Supplied by Action Images

New Zealand 221 (Herath 5-65, Eranga 3-51) v
Sri Lanka 9-1 (Southee 1-1)
First Test, Galle, Day One
Scorecard
Report by Daniel Grummitt

New Zealand squandered a golden opportunity to put Sri Lanka under pressure after winning an important toss in Galle and were dismissed to a combination of intelligent pace bowling from Shaminda Eranga and wily left-arm spin from Rangana Herath, who ended with five wickets.

New Zealand lost three wickets in the first hour as Martin Guptill played inside a delivery from Eranga and edged to Angelo Mathews at second slip. Kane Williamson then perished in the same over to make it 29 for two, and captain Ross Taylor was cleaned up by Nuwan Kulasekara just 11 runs later.

Fortunately for the tourists, Daniel Flynn and Brendon McCullum were on hand to effect a partial recovery. The pair added 90 for the fourth-wicket and batted until well after lunch. Both left the ball well outside off-stump and were quick to dispatch anything loose. McCullum went past 4000 Test runs with a pull off the spinner, but became the first of five Herath wickets when he was beaten for pace and a little turn, the ball clipping his off-stump.

Then followed a steady procession as New Zealand lost their last seven wickets for 91 runs. New batsman James Franklin lasted 42 balls for just three runs before being trapped in front off his 43rd, while Flynn’s resistance was ended with him on 53 edging Herath to Prasanna Jayawardene.

Doug Bracewell made 12; Kruger van Wyk 28, but both ultimately fell victim to Herath, who finished with five for 65. Eranga dispatched Tim Southee for 16  and ended with three for 51, with Nuwan Kulasekara bowling last man Trent Boult to end with two for 31.

This left Sri Lanka with a tricky five overs to survive, which they didn’t manage. Trent Boult and Tim Southee found enough movement to encourage them tomorrow, with the latter dismissing debutant Dimuth Karunaratne for a duck in the second over. Night-watchman Suraj Randiv had his moments but survived to end on three as the hosts reached stumps on nine for one to end a day which they comfortably had the best of.