AP, Dunedin :
Milinda Sirwardana and Rangana Herath helped Sri Lanka recover from the loss of two early wickets Saturday to reach 262-7 at lunch on the third day of the first cricket test against New Zealand.
Tim Southee struck twice early in the day to reduce Sri Lanka from 198-4 overnight to 209-6 in reply to New Zealand’s first innings of 431.
Southee removed Dinesh Chandimal with the second ball of the day and at his overnight score of 83, caught by Martin Guptill at second slip. He then had Kithuruwan Vithanage caught by wicketkeeper B.J. Watling for 22, giving Watling his fifth catch of the innings.
Sirwardana and Herath then dug in against a barrage of short-pitched bowling to put on 43 for the seventh wicket before Siriwardana was caught at slip on 35. Herath was 12 not out at lunch.
Southee struck Herath on the head with a bouncer late in the first session. The first four balls of the over were all short and Herath was struck on the side of the helmet when he tried to duck the fifth, which didn’t bounce as much as he expected.
He seemed dazed and required treatment on the field but was able to resume his innings which had occupied 107 minutes by lunch, frustrating New Zealand’s push for a substantial first innings lead.
Dushmantha Chameera was with Herath at lunch, not out on 6.
The loss of Chandimal so early in the day was a bitter blow for Sri Lanka who had battled back into the match on the second day Friday after losing its first two wickets for 29 runs. Chandimal had put on 121 runs with Dimuth Karunaratne (84) for the third wicket to repair the innings and to give Sri Lanka some hope of first innings parity.
But the loss in quick succession of Karunaratne and captain Angelo Mathews (2) delivered a major blow to the Sri Lanka innings, stalling its fightback, and it chances of avoiding a substantial first innings deficit seemed to rely on Chandimal.
He wasn’t able to make any further contribution Saturday before falling to a sharp slip catch by Guptill and Vithanage played a couple of fluent drives before Southee drew a false shot and created another catch for Watling.
Neil Wagner removed Siriwardana, caught at first slip by Ross Taylor when Sri Lanka was 252. All seven wickets in the Sri Lanka innings have fallen to catches behind the wicket.
Southee had 3-56 at lunch and Wagner had 2-78.
New Zealand pursued a tactic of bowling short at the Sri Lanka middle and lower order which both slowed the run rate and produced two catches to slip and one to the wicketkeeper.
