Fast bowler Tim Southee believes that New Zealand had played competitive cricket throughout the Galle Test, but it was only a century-stand between captain Dimuth Karunaratne and Lahiru Thirimanne which turned the match in favour of Sri Lanka.
Karunaratne’s 122 and Thirimanne’s 64 played a key role in Sri Lanka’s 6-wicket win over the Black Caps in the first Test of the two-match Test series.
While saying Kiwis had learned a lot about how best to play in local conditions from their loss in the Galle Test, Southee hopes that the tourists would put in the hard work and turn around their fortunes with a much better performance in the second and final Test to be played from 22 August in Colombo.
Southee told media on Tuesday, 20th August, “We played some good cricket throughout the five days but Sri Lanka were just better in the back end of the game. We showed glimpses throughout and the guys learned a lot from playing in these conditions. Hopefully we can put in the hard work and turn out a performance over the next test match.”
The spin trio of Ajaz Patel, Will Somerville and Mitchell Santner combined bowled 128 of the 179 overs on an unresponsive Galle pitch, while Southee along with his fellow pace bowler Trent Boult bowled rest of the overs and the pacer said it was just because of the Lankan conditions.
The 30-year-old added, “It’s a tough one because you know that you’re only going to get a short spell, so you walk a fine line of not trying too much and trying to keep it tight but still trying to take a wicket. I guess we’re doing more of a support role for the spinners who are more attacking in these conditions.”
While New Zealand’s top-six batsmen failed to fire in the Galle Test with only Ross Taylor and wicketkeeper BJ Watling managing to score 50-plus, the pacer hailed the tail for posting the competitive score in their second innings.
In New Zealand's second innings of the first Test, Somerville scored a career-best 40 not out, while Southee (23) and Boult (26) came out with handy cameos.
Southee signed off by saying, “The tail did a great job to get a competitive score in the third innings. If you look around the world the good sides do have contributions from the tail. When you have a batsman like BJ who bats so well with the tail then it’s about hanging in and trying to support him in the job he does. If you’re able to leak out as many runs as possible then that makes it tougher for the opposition.”
(With Reuters Inputs)
