Sri Lanka celebrate a wicket on the fourth day of the second test. Photo / Sri Lanka Cricket
All the action from the second test between the Black Caps and Sri Lanka at Galle International Stadium, Galle, Sri Lanka.
The good news is the Black Caps will be allowed to leave the subcontinent sooner than expected.
Unfortunately for a beleaguered team, next month they must return for an even tougher assignment.
Fresh carnage surely awaits during a daunting three-test tour to India, at least based on the way Tim Southee’s side surrendered against Sri Lanka.
After the hosts posted 602-5 to seize complete control of the second test in Galle, the Black Caps batted in their first innings like they were in a hurry to get home.
Beginning day three on 22-2, they slumped to 68-9 while remaining almost 350 runs from avoiding the follow-on, seven wickets falling in little more than an hour.
The eventual total of 88 was New Zealand’s lowest against Sri Lanka. Five recognised batters had been dismissed for single figures. Nightwatcher Ajaz Patel lingered longest at the crease (64 minutes) while the last-wicket stand between Mitchell Santner and Will O’Rourke was the highest of the innings (20 runs).
To complete the first session, the tourists even failed to emerge unscathed from a two-over stint before lunch, with Tom Latham backing up a soft dismissal for two by being bundled out for a duck.
The horse having bolted into a neighbouring country, the afternoon did see an attempt to close the barn door.
Devon Conway will hope he discovered some confidence with a run-a-ball 62, the opener’s first half-century in 18 months. An aggressive 97-run stand with Kane Williamson was, a few wickets later, matched by Tom Blundell (47no) and Glenn Phillips (32no).
But when bad light ensured the Black Caps would escape into day four, they still trailed by 315. Defeat will not be their worst in test history but another 94 runs are needed to avoid a spot in the bottom three.
A heavy loss was always likely after New Zealand squandered half a dozen chances while ceding their sixth-highest total in 472 tests. Yet the manner in which they folded in the first innings became a nadir in Southee and Gary Stead’s stewardship.
Sri Lanka’s two spinners bowled well, as Prabath Jayasuriya collected 6-42 to follow a nine-wicket haul in the first test, but two things can be true and several batters gave away their wickets with bizarre shot selection in the circumstances.
Being unable to cope under crushing pressure could hardly be employed as an excuse – no batter was at the crease long enough for pressure to build. Instead, they demonstrated the resolve of a side already beaten.
What made the collapse more perplexing was the fight the tourists had displayed a few days earlier while falling to a 63-run loss at the same venue. This was, somewhat regrettably, the same group of 11 players encountering a similar attack on an adjacent pitch.
New Zealand occupied the middle for 162 overs in the first test. During that first innings, the top seven each spent more than an hour batting proactively while protecting their wicket.
They did eventually lose 18 of 20 wickets to spin, but if one or two small moments had transpired differently a rare subcontinent triumph was well within reach.
To follow that with this – when victory was almost essential to keep alive faint World Test Championship chances – should prompt real reflection.
It should also prompt an alteration or three when the team head away for the showdown against India, where New Zealand are without a win since 1988.
But having eschewed an opportunity to expose to similar conditions the travelling quartet of Matt Henry, Michael Bracewell, Will Young and Ben Sears, there is no guarantee change will come.
OPINION: Black Caps rebuild looms with fewer tests, Kane Williamson free agent.