New Zealand 178 and 0 for 0 lead Sri Lanka 104 (Mathews 33, Boult 6-30, Southee 3-33) by 74 runs
In a truly phenomenal burst of swing bowling, Trent Boult uprooted six Sri Lanka batsmen in the space of 15 balls, conceding only four runs through that period, to give New Zealand a 74-run first-innings lead at Hagley Oval.
Sri Lanka had begun the day 100 runs adrift, and with six wickets still in hand, but nosedived dramatically against Boult’s late swing, They were all out in the first nine overs of the day, with only their best batsman of the series – Angelo Mathews – capable of resisting Boult for any length of time, remaining not out on 33 off 88 balls. Incredibly, he made just six runs in the morning and watched Boult scythe through his teammates from the other end in horror.
Boult had been sublime from the outset on day two, regularly threatening to swing a ball between right-hander Roshen Silva’s bat and pad, but it was in his fourth over that the breakthroughs began to come. Roshen was caught at third slip driving loosely at a full delivery angled across him, to end Sri Lanka’s best partnership of the innings – his 43-run stand with Mathews.
In his next over, Boult’s swing, which went from right to left (in to the right hander, away from the lefties) was irresistible. Niroshan Dickwella drove at a ball that curved dramatically away from him at the last moment, with Tim Southee diving across from third slip to complete a spectacular one-handed catch.
The remaining dismissals were all lbws – each of them plumb. Dilruwan Perera, Suranga Lakmal, Dushmantha Chameera and Lahiru Kumara all either left or missed deliveries they had been convinced were heading down the leg side, only for each of those wicket balls to change course fast and late, to hit each of them in front of middle stump.
The only confident stroke right through that 12-ball passage in which five wickets fell, was Chameera’s blocking out of a hat-trick ball, after Perera and Lakmal had fallen to consecutive deliveries to end the previous over.
Southee did his part to support Boult, not only in taking two catches at third slip, but in ensuring that Mathews remained off strike for the start of what turned out to be Boult’s final over of the innings.
Boult had been outstanding on the first evening as well, though without a lot of luck. But through the course of roughly 15 minutes, it is possible that he has produced the definitive passage of cricket in the series.