Sri Lanka Vs New Zealand 2nd Test Cricket at SSC-COLOMBO

New Zealand wrested back some momentum by taking the last five Sri Lankan wickets for 27 in the hour after lunch, thanks in no small part to a trigger-happy tail. Jeetan Patel had got himself into the wickets' column just before lunch and returned to finish with his best haul of the tour, his final wicket being that of centurion Thilan Samaraweera, without whom Sri Lanka would have really struggled.

Chris Martin began the session by bouncing Prasanna Jayawardene, who top-edged to long leg. Then Patel struck, first getting Dammika Prasad to poke to slip and next ball trapping Rangana Herath lbw. His fourth victim was the man of the moment, Samaraweera, who gloved a reverse-sweep to depart for an excellent 143.

New Zealand brought themselves back into this match well after lunch when the way Samaraweera had batted made 500 look a distinct possibility.

Prior to the day's play, Daniel Vettori had spoken about getting past Jayawardene and Samaraweera and into the lower middle order. O'Brien put New Zealand on the right track with a good first spell of quick bowling on an unresponsive track, dismissing Mahela Jayawardene for 92, but the visitors again sat back to allow Samaraweera and comeback kid Chamara Kapugedera add a breezy 72.

Samaraweera started the day with sumptuous on-drive for four that took him past 1000 Test runs this year and almost as if celebrating, uppercut a bouncer for four. The eighties were a blur as Samaraweera unfurled slow-motion pulls past square, spiffy drives past cover and a couple deft dabs. After Jayawardene's dismissal, though, Samaraweera slowed down. The footwork turned hesitant and the judgment wavered slightly. He remained on 99 for 14 nervous deliveries, a couple times playing down the wrong line. But he eventually reached the landmark, after 277 minutes at the crease, with a push between cover and point off Martin. The next ball was hooked for six, a release of adrenalin.

A classy drive past cover followed off Jacob Oram, who continued to bowl without pace or menace, after which Samaraweera clouted Patel for consecutive fours, unafraid to go over the top. Kapugedera, who enjoyed a life on 9, and eased his way to 35 before miscuing to mid-off four minutes before lunch.

New Zealand came out after the interval and turned in their best passage of the match, but will need to follow that up with the bat.

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After heavy morning rain had caused a 90-minute delay, Sri Lanka's bowlers chipped away relentlessly, whittling out six wickets before bad light took the players off with New Zealand having just avoided the follow-on target. Thilan Thushara and Muttiah Muralitharan were Sri Lanka's bowling heroes, while Tim McIntosh, who faced 226 balls for his 69, led the resistance for the visitors. Along the way, Murali passed Shane Warne for the most maidens bowled in Test cricket (1761), and New Zealand were left to rely on their allrounders to take them past the follow-on target.

When Jacob Oram was wrongly given out caught off the pad soon after tea, New Zealand were still in danger of being asked to bat again. But Jesse Ryder, who had got going with a couple of emphatic pulls off Thushara, and Daniel Vettori staved off the spin threat and when the new ball was finally taken after 97 overs, a cover-drive from Ryder ensured that there would be no prospect of an innings defeat.

He went soon after, bowled playing an airy drive at Nuwan Kulasekara, and there was a stroke of fortune for New Zealand just before stumps when Daniel Vettori was palpably plumb to a Murali doosra. Everyone but the umpire was convinced, and Vettori could have been excused a shy grin as he walked off for the day.

McIntosh and Ross Taylor had batted through most of the afternoon, long periods of stolid defence interspersed with moments of real anxiety. McIntosh survived a couple of vociferous leg-before shouts from Murali, while Taylor was twice reprieved, on 15 and 27. Mahela Jayawardene couldn't get his hands to a low chance at slip off Ajantha Mendis, and he was again the injured party as Nuwan Kulasekara spilled a slog-sweep.

It was a stroke that Taylor had employed earlier, with one soaring over the rope at square leg, but by and large, attacking strokes were few and far between. McIntosh struck one superb straight six off Mendis, but neither batsman was remotely assured against Murali's wiles, especially with the ball angling in from round the wicket.

The two spinners bowled in tandem for most of the session, but it was only when Mendis was taken off after a 14-over spell that Sri Lanka broke through. Taylor hung his bat out at one from Thushara, and Prasanna Jayawardene did the rest. Soon after, McIntosh's luck ran out. This time, the leg-before shout was marginal, on or just outside the line of off stump, but after a long think, Daryl Harper raised the finger. When McCullum then chopped Thushara onto his stumps, New Zealand were in desperate trouble.

They had managed fine in the abbreviated first session as McIntosh, troubled periodically by the short ball, gritted his way to a half-century. Patel provided stout resistance as the bowlers toiled hard without reward. Murali bowled the first over and was then taken off, and it was Thushara who asked all the initial questions. Patel was sound and confident in defence, nudging the odd single, while McIntosh left the ball alone more often than not. Against the short ball though, he was in all sorts of strife, getting hit first on the shoulder and then flush on the helmet.

Patel's innings was part grit and part good fortune. There was one lovely drive through the covers off Thushara, but it was followed by an awkward shot that flew past the slips as he sought to duck under a bouncer. McIntosh survived a huge shout from Mendis, with the umpire perhaps thinking there was an inside edge, and it looked like it was going to be New Zealand's morning as a rare full toss was pummelled away to take McIntosh to his half-century. But then Murali struck, trapping Patel in front after a 57-ball 26, and it was left to Taylor and McIntosh to rebuild. But so slow and painstaking was the progress, with Murali putting together 29 uninterrupted overs for just 54 runs, that it was only a matter of time before Sri Lankan pressure told.

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