Sri Lanka complete 2-0 whitewash of Black Caps at Galle

Sri Lanka, winners of the two-Test series 2-0

Player of the Series Prabath Jayasuriya

Player of the Match Kamindu Mendis

• Spinners dominate Test with 18 wickets

Sa’adi Thawfeeq reporting from Galle  

With Sri Lanka’s Test team turning the corner under the leadership of Dhananjaya de Silva, they continued their winning momentum, securing their third successive win by beating New Zealand by an innings and 154 runs to make a clean sweep of the two-match series 2-0 at the Galle International Cricket Stadium yesterday.

They continued their win against England at the Oval by eight wickets with a 63-run win in the first Test against New Zealand at Galle, and yesterday’s performance gave them a hat-trick of victories.

By doing so, Sri Lanka achieved another world record for the highest number of Test wins at one venue – 26 – at Galle, going past England’s 25 at Lord’s.

New Zealand, trailing Sri Lanka by a massive 514 runs in the first innings after being shot out for 88, put up a much better display of batting after being forced to follow-on by scoring 360, extending the match into the fourth afternoon. 

There was no doubt about the result of the match when New Zealand resumed at 199-5 and still trailed by 315 runs to avoid an innings defeat. However, courtesy of some dropped chances by the Lankan fielders, the middle and late order batsmen capitalised on the lapses to delay the inevitable.

Overnight pair Tom Blundell and Glenn Phillips carried their partnership to 95 for the sixth wicket before Sri Lanka broke through when debutant off-spinner Nishan Peiris trapped Blundell lbw for a stroke-filled 60 scored off 64 balls (6 fours, 2 sixes). But that dismissal brought together Phillips in another stand of 64 with Mitchell Santner for the seventh wicket.

Peiris picked up Phillips’ wicket as well when he tried to go downtown and holed out to Dimuth Karunaratne at long-on for a well compiled 78 off 99 balls (6 fours, 3 sixes).

Tim Southee, the New Zealand Captain, did not last long, falling to Prabath Jayasuriya for 10, but Ajaz Patel stuck it out with Santner in another frustrating stand that produced 53 runs for the ninth wicket.

Patel missed at 1, made 22 off 40 balls before Jayasuriya castled him with one that turned sharply. Santner, who enjoyed two lives at 36 and 47, stuck it out for 115 balls to score 67 with 6 fours and 2 sixes before being the last wicket to fall to Peiris, who, on his debut, finished with figures of 6/170 to become only the seventh Sri Lankan bowler to take an innings five-fer on Test debut. He had match figures of 9/203 and played the role he was picked for – to contain the runs from one end for the team’s ace spinner, Jayasuriya, to be effective from the other. Jayasuriya, with 6/42 in the first innings and nine wickets in the match, took his series tally to 18 wickets and was named Player of the Series.

Kamindu Mendis, who continued his dream run with yet another century – and reached 1,000 runs in just 13 innings, joining an elite list that contained the great Don Bradman – was named Player of the Match for his career best knock of 182* that went a long way towards Sri Lanka making a huge score of 602-5 declared. New Zealand’s capitulation for 88 pushed them into a position where they had to play catch-up cricket. 

One notable aspect of this Test has been Sri Lanka’s close catching, led by Captain Dhananjaya de Silva who snaffled five in the first innings, and New Zealand’s which had looked rather bedraggled in the field, missing many chances on days one and two.