Twitter Reactions: Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls floor Sri Lanka as New Zealand make merry of the opposition

While Australia are going down like ninepins at home against India at the MCG, their Trans Tasman rivals New Zealand are dominating the other Asian side like anything. After getting bowled out for 178 in the first innings, they first dismantled Sri Lanka for 104 thanks to Trent Boult’s wicket-taking spree and then have batted them out of the game by amassing 585 runs for the loss of only four wickets.

Starting the third day already in a dominating position, the Kiwis lost Ross Taylor early in the morning and unfortunately for the visitors, that was the only success until Tea arrived. During the wicketless period, Henry Nicholls and Tom Latham pummelled the opposition bowlers. It was a pure Test match batting but the tired Sri Lankan bowlers kept on offering the freebies and looked resigned to their fate.

The fact that the part-time bowlers Danushka Gunathilaka and Dimuth Karunaratne bowled as many as twenty over is a testament to the fact that they were just waiting for the declaration to come the whole day.

Latham’s golden run and defiant Nicholls

Meanwhile, Latham and Nicholls made merry of the bowling and had fun in the middle. The duo added 214 runs for the fourth wicket and was extremely determined. Latham, in the process, got to his second successive century while Nicholls also crossed the three-figure mark easily. Just when one felt that the Kiwi opener will make yet another double-hundred, Dushmantha Chameera strangled him down the leg-side for 176.

But the wicket only brought Colin de Grandhomme to the pitch who was probably hurting after being dropped from the ODI squad. He smashed a 28-ball half-century which is also the fastest fifty for the Kiwis in their Test history. He and Nicholls stitched 124 runs together in just 87 balls to finally declare at 585/4 after 153 overs.

A target of 660 runs for Sri Lanka was virtually impossible to get. Moreover, their openers were tired after fielding for so many overs and both were scalped by the dream duo of Tim Southee and Trent Boult. Dinesh Chandimal and Kusal Mendis then bravely batted through the day to end on 24/2 after 14 overs. It is a tall ask for the visitors now to bat out for the next two days as the defeat looks inevitable for them.

Here’s how Twitter reacted during the day:

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