On an opening day marred by rain and bad light, New Zealand finished strongly at 155 for 2 in the 48 overs bowled in Wellington.
Devon Conway scored half of those runs, leading the way with a stroke-filled first-session fifty. Dhananjaya de Silva had him caught and bowled early after Tea after which Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls kept New Zealand purring along.
Conway reckoned the pitch that wore a lush green look wasn’t ‘so bad’ for the batters, though he and Tom Latham had to deal with tennis-ball bounce at the start. Sri Lanka quicks got some nip off the surface and troubled the duo in the initial stages of the second session, after the morning session had been completely lost to rain and wet outfield.
Latham and Conway showed patience in their approach considering that the conditions weren’t favourable to them. They were happy to bide their time – Latham in particular – while Conway found his stroke-making rhythm when Sri Lanka’s pacers erred in lengths. Asitha Fernando dished out a hit-me half-volley that the classical Conway caressed through cover. Lahiru Kumara offered two such balls that ended with similar results. Kumara attacked the stumps in retaliation but Conway timed an on-drive to perfection.
A few balls misbehaved and kicked off from a length but the strong winds made it hard for the bowlers to run in and maintain accuracy. “It’s the windiest I have played here, it was hard to run in, it was a challenge for them (bowlers) and we took advantage of that as batters,” Conway opined.
As Sri Lanka’s bowling began to lose venom, Conway grew into the session, adding to his tally of fours and getting to a 68-ball half-century. New Zealand would’ve expected to go to the Tea break without any damage, but Latham pulled a Kasun Rajith ball straight to deep square leg fielder Prabath Jayasuriya to fall for 21.
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Conway, who scored all the 12 fours hit in the afternoon session, aimed to drive New Zealand ahead in the post-Tea period too but fell to a caught-and-bowled dismissal for the second time in three innings. He walked back for 78, leaving the mantle for Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls
to take over — which they duly did, driving New Zealand forward solidly in the 12.2 overs since Conway’s dismissal, before bad light forced players off the field. The conditions didn’t improve and the umpires deemed it too dangerous to continue, bringing an early end to the first day of the fixture.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tom Latham | c Prabath Jayasuriya b Kasun Rajitha | 21 | 73 | 0 | 0 | 28.77 |
| Devon Conway | c & b Dhananjaya de Silva | 78 | 108 | 13 | 0 | 72.22 |
| Kane Williamson | c b Prabath Jayasuriya | 215 | 296 | 23 | 2 | 72.64 |
| Henry Nicholls | not out | 200 | 240 | 15 | 4 | 83.33 |
| Daryl Mitchell | c & b Kasun Rajitha | 17 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 141.67 |
| Tom Blundell | not out | 17 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| Extras | 32 (b 2 , lb 17 , nb 8, w 5, pen 0) |
| Total | 580/4 (123 Overs, RR: 4.72) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kasun Rajitha | 32 | 6 | 126 | 2 | 3.94 | |
| Asitha Fernando | 26 | 6 | 110 | 0 | 4.23 | |
| Lahiru Kumara | 25 | 1 | 164 | 0 | 6.56 | |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | 19 | 3 | 75 | 1 | 3.95 | |
| Prabath Jayasuriya | 21 | 1 | 86 | 1 | 4.10 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oshada Fernando | c Tom Blundell b Matt Henry | 6 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 18.75 |
| Dimuth Karunaratne | c Tom Latham b Michael Bracewell | 89 | 188 | 9 | 0 | 47.34 |
| Kusal Mendis | c Devon Conway b Doug Bracewell | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Prabath Jayasuriya | c Daryl Mitchell b Tim Southee | 4 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 23.53 |
| Angelo Mathews | c Tom Blundell b Matt Henry | 1 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10.00 |
| Dinesh Chandimal | st Tom Blundell b Michael Bracewell | 37 | 92 | 4 | 0 | 40.22 |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | c Tim Southee b Michael Bracewell | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Nishan Madushka | c Michael Bracewell b Matt Henry | 19 | 31 | 3 | 0 | 61.29 |
| Kasun Rajitha | run out (Tom Latham) | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Lahiru Kumara | not out | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 25.00 |
| Asitha Fernando | c Kane Williamson b Blair Tickner | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Extras | 7 (b 4 , lb 1 , nb 1, w 1, pen 0) |
| Total | 164/10 (66.5 Overs, RR: 2.45) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tim Southee | 15 | 6 | 22 | 1 | 1.47 | |
| Matt Henry | 20 | 6 | 44 | 3 | 2.20 | |
| Doug Bracewell | 12 | 7 | 19 | 1 | 1.58 | |
| Michael Bracewell | 12 | 1 | 50 | 3 | 4.17 | |
| Blair Tickner | 6.5 | 1 | 21 | 1 | 3.23 | |
| Daryl Mitchell | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3.00 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oshada Fernando | c WA Young b Doug Bracewell | 5 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 13.89 |
| Dimuth Karunaratne | c Devon Conway b Tim Southee | 51 | 83 | 4 | 0 | 61.45 |
| Kusal Mendis | c Kane Williamson b Matt Henry | 50 | 106 | 8 | 0 | 47.17 |
| Angelo Mathews | c Michael Bracewell b Blair Tickner | 2 | 44 | 0 | 0 | 4.55 |
| Dinesh Chandimal | c Doug Bracewell b Blair Tickner | 62 | 92 | 8 | 0 | 67.39 |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | c Henry Nicholls b Michael Bracewell | 98 | 185 | 12 | 1 | 52.97 |
| Nishan Madushka | c Tim Southee b Blair Tickner | 39 | 93 | 4 | 1 | 41.94 |
| Kasun Rajitha | c Kane Williamson b Tim Southee | 20 | 110 | 1 | 0 | 18.18 |
| Prabath Jayasuriya | c Blair Tickner b Michael Bracewell | 2 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 4.44 |
| Lahiru Kumara | c Michael Bracewell b Tim Southee | 7 | 45 | 1 | 0 | 15.56 |
| Asitha Fernando | not out | 0 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Extras | 22 (b 0 , lb 6 , nb 2, w 14, pen 0) |
| Total | 358/10 (142 Overs, RR: 2.52) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tim Southee | 27 | 13 | 51 | 3 | 1.89 | |
| Matt Henry | 29 | 8 | 59 | 1 | 2.03 | |
| Michael Bracewell | 42 | 14 | 100 | 2 | 2.38 | |
| Doug Bracewell | 18 | 3 | 58 | 1 | 3.22 | |
| Blair Tickner | 26 | 6 | 84 | 3 | 3.23 | |
