Lunch New Zealand 1 for 0 trail Sri Lanka 244 (De Silva 109, Southee 4-63, Boult, 3-75) by 243 runs
Dhananjaya de Silva‘s chancy but classy century formed the centerpiece of Sri Lanka’s rescue act against New Zealand on the third morning at P Sara Oval. De Silva had stepped out to bat when Sri Lanka were 93 for 4 and could have been dismissed on 9 had Trent Boult, who has grabbed several blinders over the years, not dropped an absolute sitter off his own bowling. There were streaky inside edges that eluded the leg stump and top edges that cleared the outfielders, but de Silva counterbalanced that with some exquisite strokes on his way to a fifth Test hundred, which carried the hosts to 244. In response, New Zealand’s openers safely negotiated two overs of spin before the lunch break.
De Silva had moved into the nineties with a top-edged six off Boult and then nearly dragged Tim Southee back onto his stumps when he was 99. Two balls later, with No.11 Lahiru Kumara for company, he reached the landmark with a carved four over backward point. De Silva blew kisses seemingly towards the crowd and had his captain Dimuth Karunaratne pumping his fist in the dressing room.
He willed Kumara into hanging around with him for 30 minutes in a 20-run partnership for the last wicket. They forced Boult and Southee to dig deep into their reserves, and ultimately it was Boult who snapped the pesky stand when he bowled de Silva for 109.
From an overnight score of 32 off 62 balls, de Silva cranked up the tempo and peeled off 77 off 86 balls on the third morning. He collared left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel and struck three successive fours off him, the pick of them being an inside-out loft over extra-cover. It provided a throwback to his first runs in Test cricket: a similar regal inside-out loft off Steve O’Keefe in Pallekele in 2016.
Patel, however, found some joy at the other end when he pinned the other overnight batsman Dilruwan Perera with an arm ball that skidded off the pitch. Southee then went around the wicket and softened Suranga Lakmal with a short-ball barrage, which resulted in him taking his eyes off the ball and fending one behind to Watling. In his next over, Southee removed Lasith Embuldeniya to come within one scalp of joining Boult in reaching 250 Test wickets in the same game.
Dhananjaya, though, cut and drove with great authority in addition to taking calculated risks with the tail. His effort – and Sri Lanka’s innings – ended when he was tricked by Boult’s knuckle ball moments before lunch.