Twitter Reactions: Sri Lanka skittle New Zealand, bundle them for 88 runs

After declaring their innings on 602 runs, Sri Lanka bowlers dominated New Zealand and restricted them to 88 runs in the second innings. The Tim Southee-led side looked clueless on a pitch which wasn’t bad for the batters, as three of Sri Lanka players scored a century in the first innings. However, New Zealand failed to deal with Prabhat Jayasuriya’s spin and that put them in massive trouble in Galle.

Veteran batter Tom Latham failed to get going as Asitha Fernando got the better of him in the first over itself, while his opening partner Devon Conway departed after scoring nine runs. Kane Williamson, who’s regarded as one of the best Test batters of modern time departed for seven while Ajaz Patel, who was sent to bat at number four scored only eight runs.

Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell failed to make a mark as well, scoring 10 and 13 runs respectively while keeper-batter Tom Blundell made one run. Glenn Phillips, who came out to bat at number eight failed to open his tally as Jayasuriya got the better of him. He ended up picking up six wickets in the first innings, while Nishan Perris picked up three. The spinners had some support from the surface but the visitors for the majority part looked clueless on how to play spin.

Mitchell Santner was their star batter in the first innings, scoring 29 runs. He was indecisive in his footwork and Nishan took advantage of that and bowled him. With that, Sri Lanka took a massive lead of 514 runs and issued a follow-on. The Kiwi batters showed little courage in dealing with Sri Lanka spinners and if that continues, the hosts would be eyeing to warp up the game on Day 3 itself.

The visitors lacked character in dealing with spinners and that is one thing that needs to be addressed immediately. The senior batters such as Latham, Williamson and Mitchell need to take responsibility in the third innings.

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