Kiwis in trouble again, Samaraweera hits ton

By Rahul Bajaj
for Cricketain.com

Published: August 28, 2009

commentComment     Email This Post Email This Post     Printable version

Colombo: New Zealand’s batting disappointed once again on the second day of the second test against Sri Lanka even as Sri Lanka’s Thilan Samaraweera scored his second successive century to surpass 1,000 test runs this year.

The tourists, replying to Sri Lanka’s first innings score of 416, saw their entire top order wiped out as they struggled to 159-5 by stumps on the second day at the Sinhalese sports club.

Ross Taylor was unbeaten on 70 and Brendon McCullum was on 5 with the tourists still needing 58 more runs to avoid the follow-on.

Samaraweera, who made 159 in the first Test at Galle which Sri Lanka won by 202 runs, hit 143 on way to becoming the second batsman after England captain Andrew Strauss to complete 1,000 runs this year. The right-hander has so far scored 1,058 runs in eight Tests in 2009 with two double centuries among his four three-figure knocks. Strauss, in comparison, has 1,071 runs from 12 matches.

Samaraweera, who turns 33 next month, has had an extraordinary year in which he hit two successive double-centuries against Pakistan before being laid low by gunshots during a militant attack. He was hospitalised for two weeks after he suffered a bullet injury in the left thigh when gunmen opened fire on the Sri Lankan team bus in the Pakistani city of Lahore on March 3.

Samaraweera proved the prized scalp for New Zealand after Sri Lanka resumed at their overnight score of 262-3. Former captain Mahela Jayawardene missed a second successive ton against the Kiwis when he edged a ball from O’Brien to McCullum after making 92.

Brief Scores:

New Zealand 159 for 5 (Taylor 70*, McCullum 5*, Thushara 2-37) trail Sri Lanka 416 (Samaraweera 143, Mahela Jayawardene 92, Sangakkara 50, Patel 4-78) by 257 runs.

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


WPSN comments




Related News Headlines

Cricketain Latest