Bowlers keep Sri Lanka on top in 1st Test vs New Zealand

Tom Latham made a gritty half century to hold together a deteriorating innings as New Zealand replied to Sri Lankas first innings of 355 Friday on the second day of the first cricket TestAt stumps New Zealand was 1625 still 193 behind with two allrounders at the crease Daryl Mitchell was 40 and had batted for more than two hours and Michael Bracewell was 9The Sri Lanka bowlers capitalized on a good effort by their batters to the put the tourists in a strong position at the end of the second day The bowlers were able to do far more with the ball Friday than the New Zealanders were able to do even on the first day and after winning the tossThe ball seamed throughout the day and batting never was easy for the New Zealanders who relied heavily on the innings of Latham and MitchellIt was tricky pretty much the whole innings Latham said With the new ball it was probably a bit easierI think once the ball got a bit older the wicket probably hardened up a bit and probably got a bit quicker The ball was seaming at a decent pace They obviously bowl very well and didnt give us a lot to hit whether that was off the front foot or the back footSri Lanka was 3056 after a good first day on which it responded to the challenge of batting first after losing the toss The tourists added 50 runs for their last four wickets reasonable return as New Zealand took the second new ball five overs after the start of playThe New Zealand new ball pair of Tim Southee and Matt Henry shared the last four wickets Southee finished with 564 his 15th fivewicket total in tests and Henry took 480New Zealand came out to bat about 30 minutes before the lunch break and probably couldnt have asked for better conditions The pitch hadnt shown much during the first innings and Hagley Park was bathed in bright sunshine perfect seeing conditionsBut the Sri Lanka seamers found a much more testing length than the New Zealanders and brought the ball back sharply at both left and right handers just short of a length the bounce was unpredictableLatham and Devon Conway put on 67 for the first wicket but battled against the accuracy and persistence of the Sri Lanka bowlersAfter a few near misses Conway was trapped lbw by Asitha Fernando when he was 30 Conway appeared to be batting on off stump and the ball pitched well outside off and cut back The umpires call was out Conway reviewed and the replay showed the ball was just clipping the top of off stumpWith Conways loss New Zealand slumped to 763Also readNew Zealand hope recordbreaker Kane Williamson is ready for first Test vs Sri LankaKane Williamson a centurymaker in his last innings attempted to drive a ball from Lahiru Kumara through cover but the ball didnt come on as he expected he mistimed the shot and stuck the ball directly to Dimuth KarunaratneHenry Nicholls came and went quickly He attempted to pull a ball from Kumara misjudged the bounce and skied a catch to Kasun Rajitha at short midwicketLatham remained the prop of the innings reaching his half century from 122 balls It was his 27th half century in tests and his 11th in New ZealandLatham then formed a partnership with Daryl Mitchell which added 58 runs for the fourth wicket but which was made difficult by the Sri Lanka bowlers who continued to find testing lines and beat the batJust as the partners looked to be setting in Asitha produced the ball of the day a searing yorker which ripped through Lathams flick shot and clipped his toes before the stumps He was 67 and New Zealand was 1344This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever