KEY POINTS:
New Zealand vice-captain Daniel Vettori remains positive his side can chase down a target in excess of 400 to win this second test.
New Zealand are faced with the daunting prospect after Sri Lanka ripped through the line-up yesterday, then added to their 138-run lead by stacking up 225-5 at stumps, with Chamara Silva unbeaten on an excellent 79.
"I think so, yeah," Vettori said when contemplating a big run chase on a wicket that has offered up 25 sacrificial lambs disguised as batsmen in the first two days.
The left-arm spinner, who toiled through 31 overs into the wind in Sri Lanka's second innings, said the wicket was getting better and the team remained hopeful it could give a far better account of itself second time around.
"They've got a couple of bowlers who will make it difficult," he said, in obvious reference to first innings destroyers Lasith Malinga and Muttiah Muralitharan.
Giving New Zealand some cause for hope was the increasing ease with which Sri Lanka showed on the second afternoon. Neither will the visiting bowlers enjoy the fierce northerly that sprung up yesterday. Or so New Zealand hope.
* There were some strange comings and goings at the Basin yesterday. Brendon McCullum and Jacob Oram were unable to field and James Franklin and Shane Bond also had spells on the sidelines.
That meant fielding coach and former New Zealand softballer Travis Wilson now has a dubious claim as a double international. At other points, Sam Fairley, Stu Mills and Jamie Tong were also used as substitute fieldsmen.
"We were calling up everybody in Wellington that was ready to go," Vettori said. "[John Bracewell] was in his gear and ready to go next."
Substitute keeper Mathew Sinclair became New Zealand's fifth non-specialist wicketkeeper to take a dismissal in a test when Simon Taufel mistook Mahela Jayawardene's thighpad for his bat.
The first four were Ross Morgan, John R Reid, Bevan Congdon and Bruce Edgar.
