NZ thank ‘miracle ball’ from Wagner for Test win

Neil Wagner, recalled after a year out to play his 18th Test, provided the crucial breakthrough to help New Zealand win the first Test in Dunedin by 122 runs yesterday.

Sri Lanka, set 405 to win, resumed on 109 for 3 looking to bat out the final day for a draw, and Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal survived for an hour. Enter leftarm medium pacer Wagner, who followed two short balls to Mathews (25) with a fuller delivery to bowl the Sri Lanka captain and break a 56-run stand. Chandimal (58) went 17 balls later and the tourists subsided to 282 all out.

“Neil Wagner really stepped up for us,” said New Zealand’s captain, Brendon McCullum. “It was beautifully set up. Wags decided that at some stage he was going to bowl the miracle ball, try and hit the base of leg stump, and in the end it split [Mathews’] defence.”

The second Test starts in Hamilton on Friday, providing McCullum with the chance to break Adam Gilchrist’s record for the most sixes in Tests. They are both on 100.

West Indies all-rounder Marlon Samuels has been banned from bowling for ayear because of an illegal action. Match officials reported the off-spinner during his side’s first Test defeat by Sri Lanka in October. He was handed a year-long ban because he had already been banned from bowling his faster deliveries in December 2013.

Somerset bowler Craig Overton should apologise for allegedly swearing at then Sussex player Ashar Zaidi during a match, says the batsman. Overton, who allegedly also told 34-year-old Zaidi to “get back to your own country”, received a two-game ban.