Black cap Kane Williamson on his way to a double century on day two of the second cricket test match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka.
Photo: Chris Symes / www.photosport.nz
Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholls both scored double centuries and shared a partnership of 363 as New Zealand skinned Sri Lanka’s bowling to amass an impressive 580 for four, declared on day two of Saturday’s second Test.
The Tourists had responded 26-2 by the end of the game at Wellington’s Basin Reserve and face an uphill battle to avoid being swept in the two-match series after losing the first Test by two wickets in Christchurch on Monday had.
Williamson also scored a century in the second innings of that game, his 27th in Tests, but Saturday’s superb performance in the company of Nicholls was a different dominance altogether.
After a rain-disrupted first day, Williamson didn’t continue on the 26th with his country 155-2 and barely made a mistake until holed in late afternoon with 215 runs in deep.
The 32-year-old became the first New Zealand batsman to hit 8,000 Test runs as he marched to his sixth double-century, hitting 23 fours and a couple of sixes in 296-ball innings.
Nicholls looted runs at a slightly lower rate on the other end as he worked his way out of a recent slump in form, not coming out on his highest Test score of 200. It was the first time two New Zealand batsmen had scored double centuries in an inning.
Sri Lanka aren’t the first team to regret winning the toss and opting to bowl on an obvious greentop just to watch the Black Caps bat for a few days.
Daryl Mitchell scored a Quickfire 17 and Tom Blundell 17 after Williamson’s departure as New Zealand swung the bat to inflate their tally ahead of the declaration.
Seamer Lahiru Kumara (0-164) the guest bowler suffered the most, but Asitha Fernando and Kasun Rajitha were both well into triple digits in the debit column as well.
Matt Henry wasted little time showing them how to roll on the lane, enticing opener Oshada Fernando to jab the ball which Blundell devoured behind the wickets.
Doug Bracewell then celebrated his return to Test cricket after an almost seven-year hiatus with the wicket of Kusal Mendis leaving for a duck after Doug Conway made a brilliant catch on the point.
Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne, who was not out at 16, and night watchman Prabath Jayasuriya, unbeaten in four, will continue Sunday with Sri Lanka a whopping 554 runs behind.
– Reuters
