At a glance
What: New Zealand v Sri Lanka, first cricket test
Where: Basin Reserve, Wellington When: 11am today (day one)
New Zealand: Tom Latham, Jeet Raval, Kane Williamson (captain), Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, BJ Watling, Colin de Grandhomme, Neil Wagner, Tim Southee, Ajaz Patel, Trent Boult.
Sri Lanka (likely): Dimuth Karunaratne, Danushka Gunathilaka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Kusal Mendis, Dinesh Chandimal (captain), Angelo Mathews, Niroshan Dickwella, Dilruwan Perera, Suranga Lakmal, Lahiru Kumara, Kasun Rajitha.
TAB odds: NZ $1.30, SL $6.50, draw $5.50
Former skipper Angelo Mathews’ unbeaten century was one shining light.
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson exercised his usual caution under the RA Vance Stand yesterday, fully aware that the United Arab Emirates triumph in vastly different conditions is now history and that they’ve made hard work of previous Basin tests.
‘‘As soon as it comes to tomorrow it’s 50-50 and it’s whoever plays the best cricket. For us, it’s about playing our best, and smart cricket, to give us the best chance,’’ Williamson said.
‘‘There’s always things you want to improve, but one of the highlights was the constant fight the team showed throughout when the game
ebbed and flowed a lot.’’
A typical emerald green pitch will mean both captains bowl if they win the toss. The last four bowl-first sides have won at the Basin. New Zealand were skittled up front by Australia (2016) and South Africa (2017) and lost, then sent Bangladesh in two years ago and conceded 595-8.
They scrapped hard to win that game, and beat a Sangakkarainspired Sri Lanka in January 2015
after batting first and conceding a deficit of 135.
Williamson will want to rid the sluggish starts and dominate from ball one as they did against West Indies a year ago, with the world No 2 test ranking beckoning if they win both tests.
‘‘On these wickets that offer to the seamers, you do bowl good balls but at the same time they are good wickets where scoring can happen
quickly if you miss. It’s important we are disciplined with the ball.’’
That task will fall to the big three of Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Neil Wagner, reunited after a spindominated UAE series. Wagner battered the Bangladesh and West Indies batsmen here and after sitting out the third test for Southee, will be charging in and utilising the bounce if the two senior swing men don’t come off early.