Daryl Mitchell 102, Blair Tickner triple-strike hand New Zealand benefit

Sri Lanka 355 and 83 for 3 (O Fernando 28, Mathews 20*, Tickner 3-28) lead New Zealand 373 (Mitchell 102, Henry 72, A Fernando 4-85) by 65 runs

Much of the injury was all the way down to the efforts of Henry, whose 72 off solely 75 balls from No. 9 knocked the wind out of Sri Lanka’s sails at some extent after they may need been entertaining ideas of acquiring a substantial a first-innings lead. And like every good onslaught, Henry’s damaging cameo happened unexpectedly and brutally.

Seemingly catalysed by the wicket of Mitchell – who had fought his technique to 102 from 193 deliveries – over the course of a subdued if not attritional day of cricket barring a quick interval previous to lunch, Henry, having trundled to twenty off his first 45 deliveries, produced 52 off his subsequent 30.

Dhananjaya de Silva’s offbreaks had been the primary to get the remedy, as two slogs over cow nook for six had been adopted by a back-foot scythe by means of cowl. That was simply the entree, earlier than Henry feasted off Kasun Rajitha a number of overs later, taking the until-that-point miserly seamer for twenty-four in an over, which included 5 consecutive boundary blows – together with a monumental straight six.

By the time Henry fell – courtesy a yorker from Asitha Fernando – New Zealand’s deficit had as an alternative remodeled right into a five-run lead. Henry’s heroics nearly obscured Neil Wagner on the different finish, who scored 27 off 24 balls within the course of. To add to all of that, Tim Southee’s quickfire 25 from 20 deliveries meant New Zealand’s final 4 added a decisive 126 runs off 124 balls after they had been 188 for six at one stage, nonetheless 167 behind Sri Lanka’s first-innings whole.

And previous to Henry’s devastating intervention, New Zealand’s positive factors had been regular if not precisely categorical. Leading the best way was Mitchell. The first hour of play noticed the Sri Lankan seamers being unable to duplicate the consistency of the day gone by, maybe responsible of making an attempt to pressure the problem; and Mitchell had a big function to play on this.

His frequent shifts within the crease – both by shuffling down the observe or taking guard a foot in entrance of the crease – made it significantly tough for Rajitha and Asitha to keep up constant lengths. Over the course of his innings, Mitchell accrued runs with out actually urgent the problem. And by the point he fell, he had introduced his aspect inside 64 runs of Sri Lanka’s rating, earlier than Henry took maintain of the sport.

All in all, New Zealand scored 211 runs in a bit beneath two periods, 82 of which might are available that extraordinary hour earlier than tea. Even although that will see New Zealand’s lead stretch to only 18, by the point Sri Lanka’s openers got here out to the center, the shift in momentum between the 2 camps was palpable.

New Zealand’s bowlers, reinvigorated by their tail-end exploits, had been unerring of their strains and lengths; the Sri Lanka batters, in contrast, by no means appeared settled, one thing highlighted by every of their dismissals: Dimuth Karunaratne was as soon as extra caught after edging a drive, Oshada Fernando feathered an ill-advised reduce by means of to the wicketkeeper, and Kusal Mendis was caught within the slips lashing at one outdoors off barely 20 minutes earlier than stumps.

Angelo Mathews was left holding fort alongside nightwatcher Prabath Jayasuriya, and whereas Sri Lanka actually have plenty of batting left, New Zealand stay on the verge of touchdown a knockout blow.