New Zealand 234 and 182 for 6 (Flynn 50, Herath 4-73) need another 312 runs to beat Sri Lanka 416 and 311 for 5 decl (Sangakkara 109, Jayawardene 96) .
Sri Lankan Team is on top of their game since their test and one day series wins against Pakistan.
New Zealand continue to struggle against magic of Sri Lankan Spinners specially Muttiah Muralitharan. They failed to generate partnerships in the first test and similar is the story in the second test. Not a single century is scored from New Zealand players in the series and there is hardly any reasonable partnerships in the series.
Sri Lankans have set a tough ask of 494 in the second test and New Zealand are already 6 down for 182 requiring 312 runs to avoid series defeat against Srilanka.
New Zealand were paying special attention to Muralitharan before start of the series and hired Pakistani Spin Legend Saqlain Mushtaq to help them overcome Murali's threat but the stretegy does not seem to be working for them since they are still unable to understand the Srilankan Spin Variations.
Daniel Flynn, who had struggled to buy a run so far on tour, handled the spinners well for a period and played with an ease the openers struggled for. He mixed caution with opportunism, not shying away from using his feet to drive and cut. Yet his too was an aborted innings. Having raised his first fifty of the series in 110 minutes, Flynn became Herath's third victim, playing back when he should have gone forward. Herath was outstanding today, outdoing Muttiah Muralitharan for accuracy and turn.
Brendon McCullum is considered a major factor in the New Zealand batting but his form in the series is highly questionable. He has failed to score runs in the series.
On the other hand Sri Lankan batsmen are batting against Kiwi attack with relative ease and not finding it hard to score runs specially Samaraweera who scored two centuries in the series and Mahella Jayawerdena is also scoring runs alongwith the skipper Kumar Sangakara who scored 109 in the last innings.
From here on Sri Lanka just needs 4 wickets to secure a series win against Black Caps hoping there is no rain interuption.
No comments:
Post a Comment