Sri Lanka continued to dominate on the second day of the second test match as the Kiwi batsmen failed to come to grips with the SSC wicket at Colombo. Earlier, the tourists had done well to restrict the Lankans to a manageable total, after it looked at one stage that the hosts would run away to something of a mammoth score and bat the Kiwis out of the game.
Overnight, Sri Lanka had got to 262/3, thanks to half centuries by Thilan Samaraweera and Mahela Jayawardene. Rather surprisingly, Samaraweera had been the more aggressive of the two batsmen, and the trend continued on the second day as well. Both the batsmen moved towards their respective 100s, but when Jayawardene was on 92, Iain O’Brien produced one that took the edge off his bat and gave the wicket-keeper an easy catch.
At the other end, Samaraweera reached another hundred – his good form had earlier paved way for an ODI selection – and in partnership with Chamara Kapugedera, the score began to accelerate. Kapugedera had been picked for this game, and he showed his aggressive side by dancing down the wicket to slam a six off Daniel Vettori. It almost seemed like the Sri Lankans were expecting some rain, and wanted to declare soon enough, and in the end, the aggression cost Kapugedera’s wicket. Jeetan Patel lulled him into going after him, but only managed to give Vettori a skier.
Sri Lanka was 367/5 at this stage, but the rest of the batsmen could barely manage to get going; losing wickets at regular interval. Prasanna Jayawardene failed to keep one hook shot down and offered O’Brien a simple catch off Chris Martin, while Patel got rid of both, Dammika Prasad and Rangan Herath off successive deliveries. The hat-trick was verted by Muthiah Muralitharan, but the Lankans soon lost their last two wickets to be shot out for 416. Samaraweera scored 143 and was the penultimate out, and the Kiwis would have sensed a semblance of a chance at this stage.
However, their biggest bane on tour so far – their batting – let them down again. Apart from Ross Taylor, none of the batsmen looked like settling into any kind of groove as wickets fell rather regularly. It was not as if the Kiwis were done in by the spinners only, as the pace bowlers captured three of the five wickets fell on the day.
Tim McIntosh, who had a decent first game, almost offered no shot to a delivery from Prasad, while Daniel Flynn’s preparations to play a spin bowler came to nought as he edged one off Thilan Thushara to be caught behind. Martin Guptil had had an aggressive start to the inning, having got the Kiwi score to 48 in eight overs, but it was this very aggressive intent that cost him his wicket too. Batting on 35, he tried to hook a bouncer from Thushara, but only managed to edge it to Muralitharan at mid-on as the Kiwis slumped to 63/3.
A rather surprisingly subdued Jesse Ryder then joined Ross Taylor and added 85 runs for the fourth wicket. Taylor slog swept both the spinners and looked to be at the top of the game; reproducing the form that was on display in the warm-up games, but Ryder seemed to be suffering from the previous game’s stomach ailment.
Ryder fell half hour before close, caught off a loopy delivery at short-leg, whereas night watchman Patel also departed soon after for the Kiwis to end the day at 159/5; 70 of those runs coming off the bat of Taylor. Brendon McCullum was unbeaten on 5 at the other end.
With three days of cricket still remaining, the Kiwis will need some strong rearguard action to have any scope to save the game. For Sri Lanka, they need to pray the rains to stay away!