Sri Lanka Beat New Zealand by 63 Runs in First Test

AFP/APP

Galle: Prabath Jayasuriya took five wickets to steer Sri Lanka to a 63-run victory Monday over New Zealand on the final morning of the first Test in Galle.

Set a target of 275 to win, the Black Caps were bowled out for 211 less than 15 minutes after play resumed from overnight, with Rachin Ravindra top-scoring on 92.

Ravindra had finished Sunday waging a lone battle on a sharply turning pitch in Galle, where the tourists had lost all four of their previous Test encounters. His knock was the highest score by a New Zealander at the ground, eclipsing Ross Taylor’s 89 in 2019.

However, the slender path to victory Ravindra had opened was snapped shut when Jayasuriya trapped him lbw while trying to defend on the back foot, having added only a single run to the overnight total.

Jayasuriya, who took nine wickets across the match and finished the second innings with 5-68, then brought the match to an end when he bowled rookie quick William O’Rourke for a duck.

O’Rourke, 23, had impressed for New Zealand with eight match wickets, including his second five-wicket haul from just three Tests in the first innings.

Left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel claimed 6-90 in Sri Lanka’s second innings, the best figures by a New Zealand bowler in Sri Lanka since Daniel Vettori’s 6-64 in Colombo in 1998.

The second and final match of the series will be held at the same venue from Thursday.