Twitter Reactions: Angelo Mathews, Karunaratne and Niroshan Dickwella hold fort for Sri Lanka
Southee took a five-wicket haul even as Sri Lanka recovered fro 9/3.
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The highly confident New Zealand locked horns with the stuttering Sri Lanka at the Basin Reserve in Wellington in the first of the two-match Test series today. The Kiwis, no wonder, are the favourites after beating Pakistan in the UAE. But they got the taste of the fight from the visitors on a tough pitch as the day ended in the balance with Sri Lanka slightly happier one would say.
After winning the toss, Kane Williamson had no doubts in opting to bowl with a green pitch on offer which is a norm in Wellington. Expectedly, New Zealand’s new-ball bowlers extracted a lot of movement off the surface and rattled the opposition’s top-order. Tim Southee was the one who wreaked havoc as he reduced Sri Lanka to 9/3 in the first half an hour itself.
Southee just pitched the ball in the right areas to dismiss Danushka Gunathilaka and Kusal Mendis while Dhananjaya de Silva got a peach of a delivery from the same bowler. However, then came the famous rearguard from their dependent batsmen. The other opener Dimuth Karunaratne and the veteran Angelo Mathews faced the music bravely.
They didn’t play a rash shot while the luck favoured them a bit as well. Slowly but surely, both the batsmen grew in confidence and even the conditions got a little easier to play. The duo made the most of it and stitched a 133-run partnership. Just when one thought that the tourists can now dominate the proceedings, Neil Wagner’s barrage of bouncers worked.
Karunaratne gloved one of them down the leg-side after batting so well for his 79. The skipper Dinesh Chandimal was also snaffled with a similar strategy by Tim Southee. Angelo Mathews also lost his patience soon and the mini-collapse led to New Zealand entertaining the thoughts of batting late in the day.
Dickwella fights a lone battle
But Niroshan Dickwella had other ideas. At 187/6, he first took Dilruwan Perera by his side and added 36 runs. Once the latter was out, the left-hander took the onus on him to turn the heat on. Dickwella attacked from one end churning up some quick runs while the lower-order supported him well. Soon he brought up his half-century and it was good to see him not throwing his wicket.
A decent effort from Dickwella propelled Sri Lanka to 275 runs for the loss of nine wickets after 87 overs. Kasun Rajitha defended and defended for 31 balls before Trent Boult got the better of him on the last ball of the day. Dickwella remained unbeaten on 73 off 91 balls as he has a great chance now to score a century and more importantly take the team’s score past 300.
Southee was back at his menacing best picking another five-wicket haul as he ended the day with the figures of 5/67 while the other fast bowlers were also amongst the wickets.
Here’s how Twitter reacted during the course of the day:
Disturbing trend in Test cricket. Senior, more accomplished batsmen batting down the order while poor, inexperienced lesser abled batsmen sent up the order. Latest example- Angelo and Chandimal batting at 5 and 6 for SL in NZ.
— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) December 15, 2018
Loving the work @IamDimuth and @Angelo69Mathews Good fight back #NZvSL 3 figures for both will make the difference here
— Russel Arnold (@RusselArnold69) December 15, 2018
Dimuth Karunaratne
2017 – 1031 runs, Avg: 39.65, HS: 196
2018 – 726 runs, Avg: 55.84, HS: 158*From all the players that scored more than 600 test runs in 2018, only Kohli has a better average than Dimuth.
He is the best test opening batsman in the world right now!#NZvSL pic.twitter.com/KBMD9uYyxf
— Sakun Sankalana (@Sakun_SD) December 15, 2018
Tim Southee picks a fifer as Sri Lanka end Day 1 at 275/9. #NZvSL pic.twitter.com/PGeoeCGF7T
— CricTracker (@Cricketracker) December 15, 2018
Unexpected by Dickwella and the senior players had played responsibly, looking forward to maintain this consistency on upcoming innings too. #NZvSL
— Nashhath Ahamed (@zenotalks) December 15, 2018
Sri Lankan tail is better in test than any team in the world #NZvSL
— Mubin Cricketer (@CricketerMubin) December 15, 2018
Day 1 belongs to Sri Lanka's former captain and two new vice captains. #NZvSL
Dimuth's 8th 50+ score in last 11 Test inngs (79, 23, 83, 57, 63, 26, 4, 85, 53, 60 & 158*)
Angelo's 5th 50+ score in last 8 Test inngs (83, 5, 5, 88, 20, 20, 53, 52 & 71)
— Daniel Alexander (@daniel86cricket) December 15, 2018
Boult wicket less in 1st Inns
9-11-2014 v Pak Abu Dhabi (both)
26-11-2014 v Pak Sharjah
28-7-2016 v Zim Bulawayo
27-8-2016 v SA Centurion
22-9-2016 v Ind Kanpur (2nd)
8-10-2016 v Ind Indore (2nd)
16-11-2018 v Pak Abu Dhabi (2nd)
3-12-2018 v Pak Abu Dhabi (2nd)#NZvSL— ONE FOR ALL (@mohsinstats) December 15, 2018
Fighting total from Sri Lanka.
Pitch is really good for batting though.Sri Lanka need Lakmal, Rajitha or Kumara to produce something special tomorrow. #NZvSL
— Sakun Sankalana (@Sakun_SD) December 15, 2018
The ball was doing nothing. It’s all to blame SL batsman. For now it’s an ok state for SL. And sure NZ will score at least 400+. But having the faith in our young bowlers still there s a hope. #NZvSL
— M.S.Akeel (@signofmajesty) December 15, 2018
This was Dickwella’s highest score in 2018 and his 4th highest score in test matches.
Great effort by Dickwella!Also, credits to Rajitha for helping Dickwella.#NZvSL
— Sakun Sankalana (@Sakun_SD) December 15, 2018
New Zealand Marginally Ahead But Sri Lanka Would Take This Score With Both Hands#NZvSL
— Sheiyon (@IamSheiyon) December 15, 2018
A decent day, considering it was 9/3 Dimuth and Mathews were great and such a smart innings by Dickwella at the end hopefully close to 300 #NzvSL
— Half Tracker (@Half_tracker) December 15, 2018
If you heard what Dikwella was talking with Rajitha, do not question the move to make him the ODI VC. #SLvNZ #NZvSL
— Saminda Kularathne (@KSSKsam) December 15, 2018
Thank god @RusselArnold69 wasn't at the com box in the end translating @NiroshanDikka 's words. It was hilarious! 🤣 #NZvSL
— Angelo Pinnaduwa (@AngeloPinnaduwa) December 15, 2018
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