(UTV|COLOMBO) – Sri Lanka seam bowler Suranga Lakmal ripped through New Zealand’s middle and lower order with four wickets in the morning session today to bowl the visitors out for 249 runs on the second morning of the first test.
Sri Lanka was 34 for one wicket at lunch in its first innings with Captain Dimuth Karunaratne batting on 23 and Kusal Mendis on 1.
Opener Lahiru Thirimanne was out for 10, stumped by BJ Watling off spin bowler Ajaz Patel.
New Zealand resumed the second day with an overnight score of 203 for five with Ross Taylor looking solid on 86 batting with Mitchell Santner on eight.
Play started 15 minutes early because only 34 deliveries were possible in the third session on the opening day because of rain.
Taylor was out in the first ball he faced for the day, slashing at a ball leaving him from Lakmal’s bowling for a catch to wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella.
Taylor’s 132-ball innings included six boundaries. It was his 31st half-century in test cricket.
With 11 runs added to the score, Santner (13) left a ball from Lakmal pitching outside off stump, which came back to trap him lbw.
New Zealand’s last five wickets fell for 46 runs.
Spin bowler Akila Dananjaya returned Sri Lanka’s best bowling figures of five for 80 while Lakmal finished with 4-29
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