Sri Lanka didn’t need long on the final morning in Galle to wrap things up, taking just 15 minutes to grab the final two New Zealand wickets and secure a 63-run win in the first Test. The result means Sri Lanka go 1-0 up in the two-match series, while also leapfrogging New Zealand up to third place in the World Test Championship (WTC) points table.
Prabath Jayasuriya was unsurprisingly at the forefront of Sri Lanka’s charge, finishing with figures of 5 for 68 – his eighth five-wicket haul, and his seventh in Galle. He ended with match figures of 9 for 204, thus taking home the Player-of-the-Match award.
After having fought so hard the previous day, Rachin Ravindra lasted just eight deliveries into the first session of the final morning, as Jayasuriya trapped him in front with an arm ball for 92 off 168 balls. Coming around the wicket, Jayasuriya tossed one up on leg, as Ravindra was caught in the crease playing down the wrong line. He reviewed, but once it was confirmed to be pitching in line, there would be no saving him.
And any lingering hopes of a famous rearguard were then swiftly quashed, as Will O’Rourke kept out just five deliveries before the sixth slipped past his forward defence and on to off stump to hand Jayasuriya his fifth wicket of the innings.
O’Rourke wouldn’t quite be satisfied with how the game ended after an impressive showing in the game, as he finished with eight wickets to his name – the second-most across the Test, and the same as Ajaz Patel.
In terms of how this result impacts the WTC, it keeps Sri Lanka’s outside hopes of a berth in the final alive. But for New Zealand, it makes their task considerably tougher, with an away series against India and a home series England coming up in the next few months.
There will be no time to dwell on this result for either team, with just a two-day break before the second Test gets underway on Thursday – also in Galle.
(espncricinfo.com)
