Mendis’ vigil ends as rain brings the day’s play to a close

Kusal Mendis missed out on a maiden test fifty when he was dismissed off the last ball of the day’s play in Dunedin today. The youngster batted out 150 deliveries for his 46 as he put on a 54 run opening stand with Dimuth Karunaratne. Sri Lanka, who were set a target of 405 with a little over five sessions to bat, were given a small concession by the weather Gods as a rain storm brought to an end the 4th day’s play with close to 20 overs left to go.

Karunaratne and Mendis were stoic in their defense as they looked to survive the early spells of Tim Southee and Trent Boult. They were given no respite by the change bowlers Neil Wagner and Doug Bracewell either, as the latter, in particular, got the ball to move around quite a bit in slightly overcast conditions. Mendis was given a reprieve on 13 when he edged the ball to gully. Martin Guptill, one of the better fielders in the modern game, put down what was a regulation chance off Bracewell’s bowling. Mendis survived another heart stopping moment when Watling put down a much harder chance behind the stumps off the bowling of Santner, ten overs later.

Southee came back to claim the wicket of Karunaratne, who yet again will be extremely disappointed with the way in which he was dismissed: trying to lift the ball over the slip cordon and succeeding only in edging the ball to the keeper. Udara Jayasundera’s stay in the middle was brief as he gloved a short ball down the leg side into the waiting hands of Watling.

Dinesh Chandimal came in next and displayed a different attitude to which he did in the 1st innings: looking to play more shots this time around. He was aided by a few loose deliveries from Neil Wagner, whose strategy seemed to be to bounce Chandimal out. He used the crease well, rocking back to hook and pull Wagner, who was bowling at a decent clip. Mendis seemed to grow in confidence at the other end as he too put away the bad deliveries. His 150 ball vigil came to an end when his luck finally gave out and Watling dived across to his right to snaffle the catch off the bowling of Tim Southee. The youngster would be extremely disappointed as not only did he miss out on a maiden half ton, but upon his dismissal, the heavens opened up and the players were forced off the field. The day’s play was eventually called off about half an hour later.

Earlier in the day New Zealand’s overnight batsmen Kane Williamson and Tom Latham, resuming on 171/1, added a further 49 runs to the total before Williamson was bowled through the gate by a quick inswinger from Dushmantha Chameera for 71. This was incidentally Williamson’s 20th 50 plus score in international cricket this year – joint highest with England’s Joe Root. His dismissal brought to the crease Ross Taylor, who has previously relished batting at the University Oval. He fell in the bid for quick runs while, at the other end, Latham brought up his 3rd test century; his first in New Zealand, with a single off Rangana Herath’s bowling. Brendon McCullum came in and made a whirlwind 17 off 6 deliveries to take New Zealand’s lead past 400. McCullum, who smashed two sixes in his innings, equaled Adam Gilchrist’s record for most number of sixes in test cricket when he lofted Herath down the ground. The Kiwis made what some would call a generous declaration, giving Sri Lanka just over 5 sessions to score 405.

Sri Lanka’s bowling was disappointing once again, as they failed to make any early breakthroughs. In the absence of Dhammika Prasad, only Chameera seemed to be posing any sort of threat to the host’s batting lineup, but he too fell prey to bowling too short at times. Sri Lanka would be disappointed with the performance of veteran Herath, who although picked up two wickets, looked flat and out of his depth in these conditions, going for over 5 runs an over. There may even be a chance that the selectors would prefer Dilruwan Perera over him in the 2nd test.
Having lost a few overs today, play is scheduled to start half an hour early on the fifth day. Sri Lanka will need Skipper Angelo Mathews and Chandimal to play out the majority of the overs tomorrow if they are to deny New Zealand. The hosts on the other hand would hope that the rain clouds stay away so that they may wrap up the Lankan innings.

New Zealand 1st Innings