Chandimal, Karunaratne give Sri Lanka positive start

LunchSri Lanka 102 for 1 (Chandimal 60*, Karunartne 40*, Southee 1-30) vs New Zealand

With strikingly different approaches, Dimuth Karunaratne and Dinesh Chandimal gave Sri Lanka a positive start in the second Test, putting together a century stand for the second wicket before lunch in Galle. Chandimal was the more aggressive of the two and scored 60 off 99 balls, while Karunaratne, who was the beneficiary of two missed chances, was on 40 off 90, as Sri Lanka ended the first session on 102 for 1.

Once Sri Lanka opted to bat again, Chandimal raced to his second straight half-century, off 79 balls, and his fourth in eight innings after Tim Southee’s outswinger took Pathum Nissanka’s outside edge for 1 at the end of the first over. New Zealand would have had their second and William O’Rourke would have dismissed Karunaratne again early on, had Daryl Mitchell held on to a low catch at first slip at the end of the fourth over after Karunaratne had edged the full delivery behind, on 5. He began to ease in as Chandimal attacked from the other end and got another life, on 17, soon after Ajaz Patel came on to bowl. Three balls after he had collected a four off Ajaz through slips for four, Karunaratne came down the track for a big swing but missed the dipping ball completely and returned to his crease quickly after Tom Blundell failed to collect the ball.

Chandimal’s intent was clear from the other end, although he got a few edges too. He got off the mark with a fierce scythe that crashed the ball square on the off side for four and edged his next two deliveries, one of which also fetched him a boundary, between third slip and gully. That didn’t deter Chandimal from taking on the bowlers. He went over the covers against Southee’s outswinger and then against Ajaz’s left-arm spin from around the wicket to score 16 of his first 18 runs through boundaries.

The most picture-perfect of his boundaries came against O’Rourke when he drove a full delivery on the up, square on the off side with a lot of power and impeccable timing. He was going at nearly run a ball when he got another edge for a boundary in the 14th over and followed it with another confident four on the off side in the 10-run over off Southee. With Chandimal on 41 off 42 and Karunaratne on 17 off 39, Southee brought on left-arm spin from both ends to stem the flow of runs.

Ajaz and Mitchell Santner bowled in tandem for 15 overs straight with tight lines on the stumps or just outside off with the odd ball turning sharply. Chandimal switched to a more patient approach apart from one lofted shot against Ajaz and was stuck on 49 for 13 balls in a phase of five overs that saw just five runs scored, including two maidens. Karunaratne was beaten a few times by Ajaz before he broke the shackles with a swipe to midwicket for four from well outside off.

The scheduled lunch time was changed to 12.22pm from noon after a brief spell of showers caused a bit of delay in the first hour of play. The second session will be played from 1.02pm to 3.02pm and the last from 3.22pm to 5.22pm.

New Zealand went into the game with an unchanged XI whereas Sri Lanka made two changes: Milan Rathnayake came in for Lahiru Kumara and offspinner Nishan Peiris got a debut by replacing Ramesh Mendis.

Vishal Dikshit is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo