Lunch New Zealand 3 for 1 (Conway 2*, Peiris 1-1) and 88 (Santner 29, Jayasuriya 6-42, Peiris 3-33) trail Sri Lanka 602 for 6 dec by 511 runs
Sri Lanka had a bash on a sunny morning, as New Zealand folded for 88, their lowest all-out Test total in reply to the hosts’ 602 on the third day. Prabath Jayasuriya bagged 6 for 42, the debutant offspinner Nishan Peiris struck three times – then once more in the second innings – and Dhananjaya de Silva finished with five catches at first slip, all of them off the spinners. That left New Zealand a mammoth 514 behind in the first innings, before Sri Lanka asked them to bat again.
Nine wickets fell in the morning, including Tom Latham’s after New Zealand were asked to follow on. The early wicket forced Kane Williamson to bat twice in the same session. Before that, in their first innings, they had tried everything, but nothing worked after New Zealand resumed from the overnight score of 22 for 2.
Williamson and Ajaz Patel went defending, Rachin Ravindra looked to lap sweep, Tom Blundell tried the punch, Glenn Phillips flayed, Daryl Mitchell slogged, and Tim Southee pushed at the ball. But no matter what they did, all of them lost their wickets.
