Watch: Kusal Mendis escapes a freak dismissal

Watch: Kusal Mendis escapes a freak dismissal: New Zealand challenged Sri Lanka with a green seaming wicket for the second Test at Hamilton. The pitch was bright green and looked as if the curator simply forgot to shave the grass off it. Maybe a minor difference between the lush outfield and the pitch must have occurred due to some cattle grazing on it yesterday morning.

Sri Lanka openers, Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis, looked undeterred as they batted cautiously and played out the new ball confidentially.

Kusal Mendis was favored by luck in the 10^th over when he narrowly missed out from getting clean bowled by Kiwi pacer Doug Bracewell. The morning session was going on smoothly, but the Kiwis were also constantly troubling the openers. Mendis, after playing out the first three balls of the over, failed to connect his bat to an in swinger. It slightly edged the stumps instead before going to the wicketkeeper.

Bracewell and the rest of the fielders raised their voices, but the umpire ignored the appeal. Everyone was scratching their heads with only one question in the mind- has the ball hit the stumps? The replays showed that it did. The off stump actually moved. It was a lovely ball from Bracewell which hit the full length and held its line just enough to hit the target. But, surprisingly, it does not get the New Zealander the first wicket of the day.

Kusal Mendis did not survive long as just two overs later he inside-edged a catch to the wicketkeeper BJ Watling off the bowling of Tim Southee.

Watch: Kusal Mendis escapes a freak dismissal:

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