KEY POINTS:
It is hard to pick which body part let New Zealand's batsmen down more yesterday, their feet or their cerebral cortex.
Whichever it was, another batting collapse has left New Zealand with a likely chase of 400-plus to win this test - and the series.
Yesterday New Zealand
batted with guilty feet, failing to get into the appropriate position to combat Lasith Malinga's spearing yorkers, or combat Muttiah Muralitharan's canny off-spin. Time and again batsmen were caught on the crease playing down non-existent lines.
But the feet only do what the brain tells them and the grey matter wasn't operating at full capacity. Nobody batted smartly, with Daniel Vettori admitting it was not just good bowling that was the problem.
Only Brendon McCullum showed any willingness to put Muralitharan off his length, on his way to a breezy 43 out of a woeful total of 130. But even he was dropped first ball.
New Zealand started the day on 66-4 and, before they'd reached 100, they'd lost a further four wickets. Mathew Sinclair was first to go. His futile 43-ball graft for just six runs ended when Malinga, in a great spell of quick bowling, ripped one through his defences.
Sinclair looked disbelieving, perhaps another victim of what Chris Martin on Friday described as New Zealand's difficulty in seeing the ball out of the slinger's hand.
Vettori didn't last long enough to get a sighter, the third ball he faced, and the first from Malinga, was a vicious yorker that hit his stumps. "I didn't see it at all," Vettori admitted. "The key is to get through those first few balls to try to get used to it."
Vettori said with Malinga's hand coming out of the darkness of the RA Vance Stand, everybody had struggled to pick up the slinger.
That was Malinga's fifth wicket on his way to a career-best 5-68 - but the damage didn't end there. Malinga rapped McCullum on the finger with a short one and, although an x-ray revealed no break, McCullum was unable to keep in the second innings, Sinclair donning the big gloves.
It was later revealed that a ball from the speedster that struck McCullum on the heel was giving him more discomfort than his digit.
The sight of big Jacob Oram at the crease was enough to excite Murali into action. The left-hander said pre-test that form was over-rated. All the same, he needn't have gone out of the way to make his point. Once he had dispatched Oram, James Franklin was next, then Bond, and finally McCullum. Out of nowhere the little magician had 4-31 and Sri Lanka a first-innings lead of 138.
In fairness to Stephen Fleming and his battered batsmen, only Kumar Sangakkara has made batting look easy in this series. There would have been great relief then when he was Sri Lanka's second batsman to depart, caught on the point boundary by Franklin off Bond.
Earlier Upul Tharanga had become another lbw victim to Chris Martin and, immediately following Sangakkara's departure, Sanath Jayasuriya's poor trot continued when he edged Vettori to Fleming.
Chamara Kapugedera made a dismal attempt to keep Vettori out and, at tea, the game was still in the balance. The session before stumps proved frustrating for New Zealand as Chamara Silva, who bagged a pair on debut last week, and the Jayawardenes showed some much-needed resolve.
New Zealand will face, in the context of this series, a huge second innings chase. It will be a fascinating struggle for several reasons - not least because it could be the last time a few of this team stride to the crease in a test match.
There's a real possibility that Nathan Astle won't be around to take on South Africa in November.
With Michael Papps in good form for Canterbury, Craig Cumming and Jamie How will be playing for their immediate futures and Sinclair knows well enough the vagaries of selection to realise he will be taking guard on shaky ground.
And Murali? You can almost guarantee he'll be giving the Black Caps' feet, and brains, a thorough examination.
