*Official* New Zealand tour of Sri Lanka 2019

[Fuller Pilch]

Shame, but still a great effort.

 

[DriveClub]

Kiwis have a winning lead here, 200 will guarantee a win

 

[morgieb]

This is brilliant stuff from the uphill skiier.

 

[Bahnz]

Would say it’s about even now. Brilliant from Beej, and good supporting work from Southee and Santner2029. Another 20 runs tomorrow morning and we should have a real cracker on our hands.

 

[Flem274*]

geez kane and ross got out looking to dominate rather than being got out by the looks. doesn't bode well.

i swear kane gets out charging spinners a fair bit. he doesn't rate them so good ones can get him out doing that charge loft.

 

[Moss]

Vintage stuff from Watling, will really miss him when he decides to hang up his boots. Santner really should have hung in there and supported him, but I suppose Southee's effort sort of made up for that.

Judging by Cricinfo 's report the pitch isn't particularly misbehaving, slow rather than sharp turn so think NZ would somehow need to get to a lead of 225 plus to make it challenging. Either way, been an excellent test so far, hopefully weather doesn't have the final say.

 

[tony p]

the number of runs watling makes when he comes in at say 122-5 or 95-4 etc is remarkable.

without looking at stats, i would say that most of his 50s & hundreds have come this way.
very rarely have i seen him come in and peel off a quick 50 or so.

he just seems to revel in these situations, which occur quite often with n.z.

if n.z get a lead of anything over 235 tomorrow i fancy their chances of winning.

 

[straw man]

GW Watling. And Southee, even.

By the cadence of the match, and going back to our tour of the UAE, we'll add bugger all in the morning to set a target that looks a little light. But then sl will make heavy work of it and it'll be a nail biting finish.

 

[Maximas]

SL showed themselves to be chase masters over in SA, this pitch isn't playing that many tricks either, 250 would be challenging, 200 has honours even maybe swinging a little SLs way, 225 honours even, anything over 250 lead and NZ can be very confident, although Ajay needs better spin support IMO

 

[M0rphin3]

Watling, WAFG. Just shows up with such a gun innings when things were looking bleak.

Still reckon 200ish is too less. Pitch looks decent to bat on, and SL is quite good at chasing down. Plus, no real threat - Ajaz aside.

Pretty disappointed with the whole lot of batters, especially KW/Rossco. I get the line of thought, but just poor and too early IMO.

 

[SteveNZ]

the number of runs watling makes when he comes in at say 122-5 or 95-4 etc is remarkable.

without looking at stats, i would say that most of his 50s & hundreds have come this way.
very rarely have i seen him come in and peel off a quick 50 or so.

he just seems to revel in these situations, which occur quite often with n.z.

if n.z get a lead of anything over 235 tomorrow i fancy their chances of winning.

Doull talked about this on day one in relation to BJs stats at 150-5 or so as opposed to 300+-5 but never produced the numbers. I'd love to see them. He's a goddamn gem

 

[Moss]

Watched the highlights, some very poor dismissals in the top 5 considering those guys had not even got their eye in. Though for a change Latham played pretty well and wasn't complicit in his own dismissal (or so it seemed).

Unless Watling and Somerville can put up a 50 plus stand it's probably a below par lead from NZ's POV, but I'd definitely look more at the first innings, should have got far more than 249 after winning the toss and batting.

 

[Jezroy]

Almost as though Kane and Ross were playing the reputation of what it’s like to play in Sri Lanka rather than how the actual match is going at the time. If that makes sense. Which is strange considering how good they were at assessing conditions during the World Cup.

One of Southee’s best test innings. Credit. Hopefully he continues to play test knocks with that sort of attitude. He’ll average a heck of a lot more than 18. He might even beat 77 finally.

And Watling is just golden. Guy looked terrible in the first innings, and start of his second. But just gutsy determination again. He’ll drag you up to some sort of score kicking and screaming. And the way he was telling Southee and Santner what the bowlers were trying, the turn, the speed they were bowling. The. Man.

 

[Bahnz]

I don’t think this pitch is as mild as some think it to be. Sri Lanka’s bowling was a bit poor at times in the later half of the day, and iirc all of Latham, Nicholls, Watling, Santner and Southee survived chances being put down off their batting. 200 will be a very challenging chase.

 

[Jezroy]

I don’t think this pitch is as mild as some think it to be. Sri Lanka’s bowling was a bit poor at times in the later half of the day, and iirc all of Latham, Nicholls, Watling, Santner and Southee survived chances being put down off their batting. 200 will be a very challenging chase.

Sadly it didn’t take much for us to put their bowlers under pressure. But a few brain explosions in each innings have squandered what could have been a much better position.

 

[straw man]

Yeah it's felt like a far from optimum performance from us this match. some players having had minimal cricket and a few more just putting in poor performances. We've been held together by one player each innings - Taylor, Ajaz and now Watling, with a few others like Nicholls, Latham, Boult working hard in a supporting role.

However Sri Lanka surely feel like they've been far from their best too, especially the batting explosion and dropped catches. So despite or in fact because of two middling performances in this match so far, it's set up for a great finish.

 

[trundler]

Lakmal is getting some respectable seam movement.

 

[OverratedSanity]

Watling is such a quality uphill skiier. Always gets these gritty runs.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Deserved a century. Hope we can push the chase to 250

 

[trundler]

Do away with the decimal system and let me arbitrarily award centuries. Watling WAG. These 2 SL pacers are very skillful but nullified by pitches. The series vs England last year was the most spin friendly ever.