Sri Lanka vs New Zealand: Black Caps outplayed by hosts day one of second test in Galle

Dinesh Chandimal celebrates his hundred against the Black Caps. Photo / Sri Lanka Cricket

Midway through the third session on the first day of the second test, Kamindu Mendis edged Tim Southee through a gap in slips and to the fence. The next delivery, he did it again.

It was that kind of day for the Black Caps, one that ended with an untidy team seemingly sliding towards a fourth straight test defeat.

There is plenty of cricket still to be played in Galle, and the hosts aren’t quite out of sight on 306-3. But the cricket already played was more grim than the scoreboard suggested.

New Zealand lurched from mistake to miscue, from frustration to exasperation, looking like a side who needed significantly longer than two days to recover from a 63-run loss in the first test.

For much of their misfortune, they had themselves to blame.

That did not apply at the toss, when Dhananjaya de Silva made one of the easiest decisions of his captaincy. But it could have applied before the toss.

With as many as three changes possible from the first test, with their victorious opponents opting for an unenforced two, the Black Caps instead retained the same XI.

The merits of that decision will be assessed fully in a few days, but Matt Henry, Michael Bracewell and Will Young may have already formed their own opinions from the sideline.

Southee, having kept faith in himself, began in a manner to justify the skipper’s belief, drawing Pathum Nissanka into an edge to end the first over. Yet even that rare highlight had the unintended consequence of bringing to the crease Dinesh Chandimal.

After forming with Dimuth Karunaratne a match-defining stand in the first test, the top-order pair set about establishing another in the second, though it twice should have been knocked over.

First, the typically reliable Daryl Mitchell – a fielder who would end the day intent on shedding that descriptor – shelled Karunaratne from the bowling of Will O’Rourke.

Then, the generally tidy Tom Blundell – a wicketkeeper whose glovework has somewhat accounted for a batting slump – missed a chance to stump the same batter off Ajaz Patel.

Those extra lives, granted on five and 17, allowed Karunaratne to reach 47 in a second-wicket partnership of 122. The loose bowling that followed the let-offs helped, too.

Southee and O’Rourke were both expensive with both new balls, the inexperienced quick guilty for the first time of becoming wayward in his line.

The tourists’ spin trio struggled to find turn and instead offered width to Chandimal, who cashed in with his 16th test ton. He and Karunaratne might have still been batting had they avoided running to the same end on an attempted single.

Careless play having briefly switched to their opponents, the Black Caps snatched back the sloppiness and held tight the rest of the day.

O’Rourke was unlucky to begin the innings and his slip cordon appeared desperate to apply a bookend, with Mitchell contriving to drop Mendis (51no off 56) and Tom Latham unable to grasp a tough chance from Angelo Mathews (78no).

But the 23-year-old seamer had already made his own luck in the 43rd over.

Called for overstepping from what should have been the final delivery, O’Rourke trundled back in and angled one across that Mathews tickled into Blundell’s gloves. The bowler celebrated before the umpire repeated the same no-ball gesture.

It was that kind of day for the Black Caps.