Twitter Reactions: A roller-coaster of a day as New Zealand eye a decent target to set
Sri Lanka would rue the fact that they let go off the advantage that they had.
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It didn’t take New Zealand too long to clear Sri Lanka’s tail up early on Day 3. The hosts continued to bat with an overnight score of 227/7 with Niroshan Dickwella and Suranga Lakmal being the two batsmen. The latter was the first to fall on the day when his team was still 7 runs short of New Zealand’s first innings total. Trent Boult rattled his stumps when he was batting on 40.
Then, Niroshan was sent back to the pavilion by William Somerville after he mustered 61. Sri Lanka, however, managed to get a marginal first innings lead of 18 runs before they were bowled out for 267. Ajaz Patel didn’t pick any wickets on this day and finished with five while Somerville accounted for three scalps.
New Zealand stumble and then revive
New Zealand had a terrible start to their second innings. While they could have clearly gained the advantage by building a good partnership early on, it didn’t really happen. First, it was Jeet Raval who fell to Dhananjaya de Silva after scoring 4 runs. As usual, there were a lot of expectations on Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor. However, it wasn’t to be this time for both these players as they got out to cheap scores.
Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor got out to reckless shots which was quite frustrating. After being down to 25/3, it was Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls who came to the rescue. They built up a nice little partnership before Akila Dananjaya managed to trap the opener for 45 runs. Post Latham’s wicket, Nicholls seemed to have gotten into a shell and was eventually dismissed for 26. With New Zealand losing half their side at 98 with a lead of just 80, Sri Lanka might have felt they were ahead.
But BJ Watling and Tim Southee upset their plans with some good batting. They added 54 runs together before the pacer got out for 23. At the close of play on the day, BJ Watling was unbeaten on 63 and New Zealand’s score was 195/7. They have a lead of 177 and will look to take that beyond 200.
There were several situations in the game when Sri Lanka had an advantage. However, they failed to seize upon that and let New Zealand getaway. While the Kiwi fans were obviously elated, the Sri Lankan fans didn’t seem to be impressed with the efforts at times. Southee was dropped twice which wasn’t really a pleasing sight.
Here is how Twitterati reacted:
How many times have we seen Kane Williamson playing such a shot so early and failing? #SLvNZ I was excited to watch his game. ☹️
— Rohit Patil (@imRohit_18) August 16, 2019
Seeing how easily both Santner and Watling playing off the deliveries in the back-foot on this slow turning wicket you got to wonder what was the thought process of Kane Williamson on playing that horrendous shot..let his team down big time here..#SLvNZ
— Cricket Tamizhan (@CricketTamizhan) August 16, 2019
Kane Williamson gone for 4. Another disappointing innings from him. He had an excellent form in WC. What happened to him now? In just one month. Definitely Steve Smith gonna take his place in rankings after this test. #ENGvAUS. #Ashes. #SLvNZ.
— Vamsi (@VBY199) August 16, 2019
KJP special in the field to get rid of Kane Williamson, who continues to fail in Galle with another low score.
2012 – 0 & 10
2019 – 0 & 4 #SLvNZ ???? pic.twitter.com/XIxJQbxc9w— Azzam Ameen (@AzzamAmeen) August 16, 2019
Lowest Match aggregate for Kane Williamson in Tests
3 (2 & 1) v South Africa, Wellington 2017
4 (0 & 4) v Sri Lanka, Galle 2017#SLvNZ— Vijayendra Kosigi (@kosigi_vijay8) August 16, 2019
Kane Williamson’s shots to get out in the two innings have been shocking to say the least.#SLvNZ
— Suneer (@suneerchowdhary) August 16, 2019
Kane Williamson has had a very poor test match by his lofty standards. 0 & 4 runs across two innings aren’t numbers you would associate with that champion batsman. He’s human after all. #NZvSL
— Richardson Mzaidume (@hlubizer) August 16, 2019
Rare twin failure for Kane Williamson and Sri Lanka have taken a stranglehold over the Test. NZ – like most teams not from the sub-continent — being traumatised by pitch loaded in favour of spin
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) August 16, 2019
0 & 4 – Kane Williamson’s scores in the 1st Test. brilliant bowling by Sri Lanka to dismiss world’s 2nd best batsman after Steve Smith cheaply twice. #SLvNZ #Cricket
— Daniel Alexander (@daniel86cricket) August 16, 2019
Certainly didn’t expect New Zealand to come out and completely self-implode early on.
Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson gifting wickets away with a tiny lead on the board.#SLvNZ #SLvsNZ
— CricBlog (@cric_blog) August 16, 2019
Kane Williamson is way too underrated that people don’t even care about his twin failures against village lankan side.. #SLvNZ
— BrainFaden Smith (@brainfadesmith2) August 16, 2019
Kane Williamson is the Lasith Ambuldeniya’s first test wicket in SL #SLvNZ
— SUM3SH ???????? (@SumeshLakshan) August 16, 2019
Loose, loose shot from Kane Williamson. So unlike him to step out and launch a spinner without getting to the pitch of the ball in the second over after a break. #SLvNZ
— Rohit Sankar (@imRohit_SN) August 16, 2019
That is the first time I’ve seen Kane Williamson out like that. ????
— Static_357 (@Static_a357) August 16, 2019
So uncharacteristic of Kane Williamson. So uncharacteristic.
Amazing catch from Kusal Perera to take a skier!#SLvNZ #SLvsNZ
— CricBlog (@cric_blog) August 16, 2019
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