1st Test
Day 1 (NZ 409/8)
The two batsmen who struggled most during New Zealand's recent tour of Australia rediscovered their form on the first day of the home summer in Dunedin: Martin Guptill made his third Test hundred, his first in 40 innings since November 2011, and then Brendon McCullum raced to a bruising half-century.
The bridge between those innings was Kane Williamson, who made his 88 look effortless against wayward bowling. Guptill added 173 runs for the second wicket with Williamson, to build on his half-century opening stand with Tom Latham, and then he watched McCullum blitz 75 off 57 balls in a partnership of 89 for the fourth wicket. New Zealand's run rate of 4.54 ensured they held the edge at stumps, though Sri Lanka took six wickets after tea to significantly redress the imbalance.
Angelo Mathews had chosen to bowl on a sunny morning at University Oval, to give his seamers first use of any assistance in the pitch, and perhaps to protect his inexperienced batsmen from the potent swing of Tim Southee and Trent Boult, the leaders of New Zealand's four-pronged pace attack in this Test. Having lost Dhammika Prasad to an injury and Kusal Perera to a banned substance, Sri Lanka had three raw batsmen in their XI - opener Udara Jayasundera was making a debut, 20-year old batsman Kusal Mendis was playing his second Test, and allrounder Milinda Siriwardana his third.
In their futile search for seam and swing, the new-ball bowlers pitched too full, and after a maiden over to begin from Suranga Lakmal, there were a flurry of straight drives, both openers using the vertical bat to guard against any lateral movement. Guptill was strong off the pads too, flicking through square leg for boundaries, and New Zealand racked up 51 in the first hour. Latham fell soon after - caught and bowled on the second attempt by Lakmal - but that made barely a dent in the home team's progress.
Williamson's first ball was on the pads from Nuwan Pradeep and he glanced for four, before pouncing on width offered by Lakmal to punch and cut either side of point. He had three fours in his first 15 deliveries. He punished width from Mathews and Dushmantha Chameera too, cutting with confidence to collect three more fours in his next 15 balls. When the delivery demanded it though, Williamson left outside off and was solid in defence.
Guptill also attacked Chameera when the 23-year old quick offered width, slapping a short one through point and flaying a fuller one through cover in the same over. He got to his half-century off 74 balls. New Zealand went to lunch on 114 for 1 in 27 overs, and the pace did not abate after the break. They scored 61 in the next hour. Mathews brought on his experienced fast bowlers again but Lakmal and Pradeep were loose. The pitch had a tinge of green on it but offered no lateral movement. Guptill passed 2000 Test runs in his 38th match - the sixth slowest for New Zealand - with a cut off Pradeep, and Williamson steered him between two gullies twice to get to his half-century off 53 balls.
When Mathews turned to spin, Guptill stepped out and lofted Rangana Herath to the long-on boundary to not let him settle, and later slapped two short and wide offerings fiercely through cover. The only uncertain moments Guptill faced were during a brief surge of pace from Chameera, when he survived two lbw appeals in the 39th over. The second not-out decision would have been overturned had Mathews chosen to use the DRS. Guptill shrugged that off and was soon celebrating a hundred off 147 balls.
Williamson was also purring towards a hundred before he fell in the last over before tea, edging a short and wide ball from Pradeep to slip, entirely against the run of play. Sri Lanka had their foot in the door when Ross Taylor was lbw cheaply to Pradeep after tea, but McCullum slammed the door on it.
Playing his 98th consecutive Test since his debut - a record he shares with AB de Villiers - McCullum scored three off his first 11 balls before treating the small crowd to unrestrained use of his scything blade. No matter who bowled at him, McCullum attacked: he slashed, charged, slogged, hooked, upper-cut and drove to a half-century off 39 balls. Often the boundaries came in clusters of two and three, and Sri Lanka were in danger on conceding close to 500.
McCullum fell top-edging a slog off the spinner Siriwardana, and his dismissal led to a spate of wickets. Chameera struck in his last over with the old ball and in his first with the new: bowling above 140kph, he drew edges from Mitchell Santner and BJ Watling during a spell that was more hostile that any of his previous ones.
Guptill did not survive the day either, edging a Mathews delivery that seamed away, but New Zealand had Doug Bracewell, who had batted impressively in the day-night Test in Adelaide, counterattacking once again. His unbeaten 32 off 39 balls took New Zealand past 400, a total their seamers will be thrilled with on a surface that was beginning to exhibit more bounce late in the day.
Day 2
New Zealand 431
Sri Lanka 197/4 (81 ov)
Sri Lanka trail by 234 runs with 6 wickets remaining in the 1st innings
Where runs had flowed and wickets tumbled as a result of New Zealand's assertive batting approach on the first day, the cricket was played at a slower pace on the second at University Oval, but was no less intense. The change in tempo was brought about by a battle of patience between New Zealand's attack, which moved the ball in both directions from accurate lines and lengths, and two Sri Lankan top-order batsmen determined to cut out risk. At stumps, Brendom McCullum's team had edged ahead on the day, consolidating their advantage in the match.
Sri Lanka lost Kusal Mendis, playing his second Test, and the debutant Udara Jayasundera early to inexperience in alien conditions, but their relatively older hands Dimuth Karunaratne and Dinesh Chandimal - both playing their 24th Tests - had kept New Zealand wicketless in the second session. Their partnership spanned 48.5 overs but produced only 122 runs, because for large swathes of time they were given extremely few hittable balls. Sri Lanka had only 17 fours in the day - New Zealand had that many in their first 23 overs - and though Chandimal finished unbeaten on 83, the fall of Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews in the final session left the lower order with a lot to do.
That Karunaratne got as far as 84 was because of a little luck and a lot of skill in the morning. In the first over of the innings, he left his bat raised while ducking a bouncer from Trent Boult, the ball pinging off the periscope over the wicketkeeper's head. In the third, he edged consecutive outswingers but crucially played with soft hands so the catches did not carry to first slip.
Mendis, however, did not use soft hands and a delivery from Boult slanted away from the right-hander and took the edge through to BJ Watling, who collected his 100th dismissal and the first of four catches in the innings.
Tim Southee tested Karunaratne with two consecutive yorkers that hooped into the left-hander and homed in on his boot. Karunaratne inside-edged the first on to his pad, and blocked out the second confidently. Jayasundera also got a similar delivery as his first ball in Test cricket and survived.
Jayasundera scored his first run by tucking Boult off his pads, but did not make another. He had watched Karunaratne slash a wide ball from Neil Wagner over the slips for four, but when he reached out to cut, he only managed a toe end to Watling. Boult's first spell read 6-2-16-1 and Southee's 5-1-6-0. That pressure was maintained by Doug Bracewell, who conceded only five runs in four overs before lunch.
The scoring stayed slow after the break, the difference being the growing assuredness of Sri Lanka's batsmen. Runs came via compact punches, dabs and crisp flicks off the pads - nothing extravagant. Karunaratne played the pull confidently, getting on top of the bounce and rolling his wrists to keep the ball down. With the ball not doing much for the seamers, McCullum brought on Mitchell Santner in the 30th over and the left-arm spinner was economical as well, conceding only 12 runs in his first ten overs. Sri Lanka made only 24 runs in the first hour after lunch.
After 80 deliveries of restraint, Chandimal attacked, charging Santner and aiming a heave down the ground. The outside edge flew over slip. Two balls later he cut Santner for his first boundary. Karunaratne began to score more freely towards tea, thumping consecutive half-volleys from Wagner to the long-on and straight boundaries, and glancing a rare poor ball from Bracewell off his pads as well. The slight loosening of New Zealand's purse strings was reward for diligent batting.
Wagner was the weak link in the New Zealand attack, and in the first hour of the final session his economy was touching five an over while the innings run rate was around two. He bowled too full and was driven often by Karunaratne and Chandimal through the off side and down the ground. With his seamers ineffective despite the ball showing a tendency to reverse - Boult's pace was down between 125-130kph - McCullum gave it to Santner.
The wicket came against the run of play, when Karunaratne went back to cut a rather cut-able ball but edged it to Watling. Sri Lanka were still trailing by 280 but their captain took only two runs off that deficit: Angelo Mathews was caught down the leg side off Southee, the not-out decision on the field overturned by the faintest of Hot-Spots.
Chandimal had got to his 50 off 143 deliveries with three boundaries, but he was less conservative in the final session, striking six more fours after raising his half-century. For company, he had the last specialist batsman Kithuruwan Vithanage, whose hard but airborne drive had been put down by Kane Williamson at short cover.
Sri Lanka were 234 runs behind with six wickets in hand at the end of the day, and they will have to face the danger of a ball that is only an over old on the third morning.
Day 3
New Zealand 431 & 171/1
Sri Lanka 294
New Zealand lead by 308 runs with 9 wickets remaining
In stark contrast to the previous two days in Dunedin, the third was overcast, cold and windy - conditions that were as familiar to New Zealand as they were foreign to Sri Lanka. The visitors struggled to cope: their batsmen succumbed to the moving ball, their bowlers toiled in the strong breeze, and their fielders put down catches in the chilly weather. The upshot was an ever-widening distance between the two teams, exemplified by New Zealand's 308-run lead with nine wickets in hand and two days remaining.
Sri Lanka's troubles began in the first over, when Tim Southee dismissed Dinesh Chandimal with his second ball. The delivery swerved into the right-hander from over the wicket, landed on a good length around middle and off stump, and seamed away. Chandimal was squared up in his crease as he tried to defend, and Martin Guptill dived across first slip from second to catch the edge.
In his second over, Southee swung two consecutive balls on to Kithuruwan Vithanage's pads and the batsman glanced both to the fine-leg boundary. The next delivery slanted away from the left-hander with a scrambled seam, and Vithanage chased it with a cover drive, giving BJ Watling his fifth catch. Sri Lanka had lost both overnight batsmen in the first 15 minutes.
From 209 for 6, Sri Lanka were lifted briefly by a plucky stand of 43. Milinda Siriwardana, playing in only his third Test, attacked the fast bowlers - driving through cover and down the ground, pulling and cutting too. Herath batted cautiously after successfully reviewing a catch down the leg side that had gone off his boot, and took 22 balls to get off the mark.
With around 30 minutes to lunch, New Zealand began bowling short, aiming at the batsman's ribs with catchers on the leg side. Herath was the primary target, and was hit on the gloves by Wagner and on the helmet by Southee. When New Zealand came at Siriwardana with short balls, he pulled. He was caught on the long-leg boundary by Doug Bracewell, who fell over the rope because he had been back-pedalling and could not control his momentum. But three balls later, Wagner sent down another short delivery and Siriwardana fended it to Ross Taylor at slip.
Brendon McCullum continued the short-ball attack after lunch, often placing no fielders in front of the wicket on the offside. Wagner began the 100th over with a bouncer, Herath ducked. The second ball was also short, Herath was beaten on the pull. The third was short too, and Herath top-edged towards long leg, where Trent Boult ran in at speed to take the catch. He had made 15 off 74 balls, and was the only batsman to not be caught by the wicketkeeper or the slip cordon.
Sri Lanka were eventually dismissed for 294 in 117.1 overs - a commendable period of time for such a raw batting line-up - having added 97 for 6 on the third day, conceding a first-innings lead of 137.
Like they had done while batting, Sri Lanka sought to take time out of the Test in the field too, by slowing New Zealand down with more accurate bowling and defensive fields - Angelo Mathews had men out at deep point and square leg early on. It worked for the hour before tea, when Guptill and Tom Latham minimised risk against the new ball.
They lifted the tempo in the final session, though, with Guptill taking charge. He could have been caught on 19 and 42, but Kusal Mendis put down a fierce cut at cover, and Suranga Lakmal failed to catch a drive on his follow-through. It was the first time New Zealand had two half-century opening partnerships in a Test since December 2009.
New Zealand targeted Herath once again, Guptill charging down the pitch to hit powerfully to and over the long-on boundary in the same over. He looked good for a second 50-plus score in the Test until he was bowled by a delivery that shot through at ankle height, an aberration on this surface. It was scant consolation for Herath, who conceded 39 runs in eight overs.
Williamson and Lathan built on the opening stand of 79, by raising their half-century stand in 61 balls, rapidly building the lead. Williamson passed 1000 runs at an average of more than 90 for the year by stepping out and lofting Herath to the wide long-on boundary, while Latham finally looked to be shaking his tendency to give away a start.
He ended the day unbeaten on 72, Williamson on 48, their partnership of 92 coming at 4.27 an over. New Zealand will aim to continue at similar pace on the fourth morning, to give themselves five sessions to dismiss Sri Lanka to take a lead in the series.
Day 4
New Zealand 431 & 267/3d
Sri Lanka 294 & 109/3 (50.1 ov)
Sri Lanka require another 296 runs with 7 wickets remaining
For the second time in the Test, Sri Lanka's inexperienced batting line-up offered more resistance than expected, but New Zealand's persistent fast bowlers supported by the safe gloves of BJ Watling ensured the home side made strides towards victory despite a bad-weather day in Dunedin. Rain and hail halted play three times at University Oval, and at stumps Sri Lanka had seven wickets left and 296 runs to get, with a better forecast for the final day.
Brendon McCullum had given his attack 405 to defend and a little more than five sessions to dismiss Sri Lanka by declaring New Zealand's second innings on 267 for 3 half an hour before lunch on the fourth day. The highlights of their quick run accumulation - 96 in 17.4 overs- was Tom Latham's third Test hundred and McCullum's record-equalling 100th six.
New Zealand's bowlers had to toil harder for wickets than their batsmen had done for runs. Play was halted either side of lunch soon after Sri Lanka began their chase but the openers' approach was not affected. Dimuth Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis batted with more confidence than they had done at the start of the first innings.
Their partnership could have ended on 28, though, but Martin Guptill dropped a straightforward chance off Mendis at first slip, leaving the bowler Doug Bracewell in anguish. In Bracewell's last over, Mendis had played a perfect straight drive and then was beaten on an expansive cover drive. Having been dropped on 13, Mendis had another reprieve on 25, when Watling could not catch a tough chance down the leg side off a gloved sweep against Mitchell Santner. Mendis collected two fours off the left-arm spinner, punishing long-hops to the leg-side boundary.
Like in his first innings, Karunaratne was dismissed against the run of play, when he tried to upper-cut Southee but edged to Watling. McCullum had held Neil Wagner back until the 29th over, and the left-arm quick broke through in his third. Udara Jayasundera ended a poor debut by fending a short ball off his ribs to Watling. Sri Lanka had gone from 54 for 0 to 64 for 2.
Dinesh Chandimal took his chances against Wagner after tea, slashing and driving outside the off stump. He middle some balls, was beaten on others, and edged a couple over the cordon. Wagner countered by targeting the body with a short-pitched attack from around the wicket, forcing defence from Chandimal.
Mendis took fewer risks, his attacking drives through cover and past Bracewell involving straight bats, as he approached his maiden half-century. He did not get there, though. Three balls after surviving a run-out chance, Mendis pushed at an outswinger from Southee that pitched on a perfect length and moved just enough to draw the edge. Watling took his ninth catch, and moved within two of the record for most dismissals in a Test. It began to rain and hail immediately after the wicket, bringing an early end to the day.
Play had begun under sunny skies on the fourth day, with New Zealand ahead by 308 and two batsmen approaching milestones. Kane Williamson got to his half-century off the second ball of the day, dabbing to square leg and sprinting the second, an indication of the urgency with which New Zealand would bat against little pressure from Sri Lanka.
Latham was playing at balls wide outside off, looking to score swiftly, and on 73 he edged Nunwan Pradeep between the wicketkeeper and first slip. It was Chandimal's catch but he did not move. Latham drove frequently through cover but a lot of his shots found fielders. Then he found the gap at extra cover off Suranga Lakmal to move into the 90s and pulled Pradeep to the long-leg boundary.
Williamson fell before Latham got to his hundred. He had lofted Pradeep to the midwicket boundary, and charged and hit Jayasundera in the same direction, but when he attempted the shot off Dushmantha Chameera, the ball nipped in, hit his pad and bowled him. Williamson's partnership of 141 with Latham had come at 4.36 an over.
Ross Taylor glanced his second ball, from Chameera, for four and hit two more boundaries in his next eight deliveries as New Zealand sped ahead. Latham drove Rangana Herath through midwicket and celebrated a Test hundred for the first time since November 2014, ending a run of seven double-figure scores without making more than 50.
After Taylor was bowled, aiming to hit Herath to deep midwicket, McCullum charged at his first ball and smashed it over the straight boundary. Five balls later, he swiped Herath over deep midwicket to equal Adam Gilchrist's record for most sixes in Test cricket, but decided he did not have to break it in this innings and declared.
Day 5
New Zealand 431 and 267 for 3 dec beat Sri Lanka 294 and 282 by 122 runs
In conditions where the old ball did nothing and New Zealand's three first-choice quicks produced innocuous medium-pace, Neil Wagner ran in relentlessly with tremendous stamina, sending down a barrage of short deliveries, harrying the batsmen at around 140 kph and broke Sri Lanka's resistance. Until Wagner came on, Dinesh Chandimal and Angelo Mathews had been untroubled and scored freely, but once he broke through his one wicket quickly led to many, and New Zealand completed a 122-run victory after lunch on the final day in Dunedin.
Before Brendon McCullum turned to Wagner, Sri Lanka made 45 runs in 15.5 overs, and Mitchell Santner and Doug Bracewell had just begun to control a previously brisk run rate. Wagner immediately resorted to a short-pitched attack from over the wicket - like he had done on the third day - targeting the right-hand batsman's ribs with men catching close on the leg side.
Chandimal had been cover-driving and cutting Trent Boult and Tim Southee, his fierce punishment of anything loose taking him swiftly to a half-century. Mathews had played with softer hands and a straighter bat, batting with calm. Wagner gave them no width, no opportunity to get on the front foot, hustling them with pace, forcing hurried evasive actions and awkward fends off the body.
Wagner's method of attack had become so ingrained in the batsman's psyche that they expected little else from him. And so Mathews, after moving hurriedly towards the off side to let two consecutive short balls whizz past his ribs, began to play the third delivery in a similar manner. Except that this time Wagner bowled a full length. The ball crashed into the inside of his front pad, shot between his legs and flattened middle stump. Mathews had not even played a shot, and was the first Sri Lankan batsman to not be caught in this Test.
Chandimal had to shelve his cavalier approach against Wagner. He had got to 50 off 90 balls - scoring 19 off 26 this morning - but made only eight off his next 41 deliveries. Subdued into a defensive mind-set, he padded up to a ball from the left-arm spinner Santner that went on with the arm, and was adjudged lbw not offering a shot. After a partnership of 56, Mathews and Chandimal had fallen with the score on 165.
Wagner now went around the wicket to aim at the ribs of the two left-handers - Kithuruwan Vithanage and Milinda Siriwardana. He pinned them to the crease with his length, and then bowled a fast full-toss at Siriwardana, who was hit on the back pad as he squared up in his crease. The umpire Nigel Llong gave him lbw but Siriwardana successfully reviewed the decision, replays surprisingly suggesting the ball would have missed off stump, perhaps because Wagner had delivered from extremely wide of the crease.
Wagner was given the second new ball for the last delivery of his first spell, which comprised eight overs at speeds that did not ebb.
Southee took two deliveries to strike with the new ball, swinging it back into Vithanage from over the wicket, hitting the left-hander's pads. Vithanage had played an enterprising innings, a run-a-ball 38 full of shots.
The slide was swift after lunch. Boult struck in the third and fifth over of the second session - drawing an edge from Rangana Herath and having Siriwardana caught at short cover, both batsmen not bothering with defence.
Sri Lanka went down swinging, and were bowled out for 282. However, the fact that an inexperienced batting line-up had lasted 95.2 overs after playing 117.1 in the first innings will be some consolation for a team rebuilding from the retirements of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene.
2nd Test
Day 1
Sri Lanka 264/7 (67.0 ov)
New Zealand
New Zealand won the toss and elected to field
"This is as green as it gets," said former New Zealand batsman Craig Cumming of the Seddon Park pitch. The seam and swing on offer was far from unplayable, though, and through a combination of enterprising batting, impatient bowling and some luck, Sri Lanka made 264 in the day at a run rate of just under four an over before rain ended play at 4.30 pm.
Sri Lanka combated the conditions with aggression. They had been submissive on an easier surface in Dunedin but today they stood up to New Zealand, lashing the swinging ball through the off side and pulling short deliveries instead of weaving and ducking. Kusal Mendis set the pace, Dinesh Chandimal accelerated, and when the innings was in danger of unravelling because of that aggression, Angelo Mathews tempered it to suitable levels. Once Mathews and Milinda Siriwardana had settled, however, they produced the strongest partnership of the innings, adding 138 runs at 4.60 an over.
Until three quick wickets in the final session gave New Zealand acceptable returns, the day had defied popular perceptions after Brendon McCullum began his 99th successive Test - a new record for consecutive matches from debut - by giving his attack first use of the grassy surface in Hamilton.
Trent Boult, in particular, and Tim Southee tried too hard - looking to swing the new ball prodigiously when a McGrath-like line would have sufficed - and were not on a good length around off stump often enough. Ross Taylor dropped a catch at slip; McCullum failed to nail two run-out chances; Doug Bracewell hit the stumps but the bails didn't fall. Mendis was the beneficiary each time. Several other edges did not go to hand, and New Zealand also exhausted their reviews on lbw appeals - against Dimuth Karunaratne and Dinesh Chandimal - inside the first 16 overs.
Southee got it right either side of the first drinks break, his outswingers drawing the inside edge from Dimuth Karunaratne and the outside edge from Mendis. The wicketkeeper BJ Watling caught both, adding to his nine dismissals in the first Test.
Sri Lanka were 44 for 2 when Chandimal edged his first delivery through the cordon for four. He then launched his counterattack. An over from Bracewell featured smooth drives down the ground and through cover, and a fierce cut over point. It read: 2,2,4,4, dot, 4. Chandimal laid into Neil Wagner too, lofting over mid-off, driving through and carving over cover.
Udara Jayasundera, playing only his second Test, was also aggressive. He flicked and pulled the left-armers Boult and Wagner, and his aggression against the short ball was a sea change from how he had struggled against it Dunedin.
Sri Lanka's advantageous position of 108 for 2 eroded quickly after lunch, though. Jayasundera was run out attempting a second that Chandimal did not want, and Chandimal added only six runs to his lunch score of 41 before being caught behind playing the cover drive against Bracewell. They had added 71 at 4.43 an over.
Having taken two wickets for 13 runs, McCullum tried to subdue Sri Lanka once again. Wagner began his short-ball attack with a leg gully, backward short leg and a long leg. Mathews and Siriwardana pulled when they could, middling some balls, top-edging others over the keeper for six. They were watchful too, mindful of the long tail after them, but refused to be beaten into stagnation.
Having scored 90 runs in the second session, Sri Lanka turned it on after tea. Siriwardene and Mathews charged the left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner, who had bowled so economically in Dunedin, and hit him repeatedly over the long-on boundary. One of those sixes brought up the 100 stand in 22.4 overs and Mathews' fifty off 87 balls. They went after Bracewell too, not allowing him to perform his controlling role. Siriwardene pulled for a flat six, and then caressed the ball through the covers to bring up his fifty.
Hamilton had been sunny in the morning but as it began to cloud over after tea, the ball began to hoop once again. Boult repaired his figures with a double-strike in an over, his movement away from Siriwardene resulting in an edge to slip, where Taylor juggled but caught it. Three balls later, Kithuruwan Vithanage closed the face too early and the leading edge was taken low by McCullum diving forward at mid-off.
Sri Lanka suffered another run out before the day ended, when Mathews called for a risky single towards cover. Williamson swooped on the ball from gully and his direct hit dismissed Herath. Losing three wickets for five runs just before the rain was a blight on an otherwise spirited performance from a young visiting side in tough conditions.
Day 2
Sri Lanka 292
New Zealand 232/9 (78.4 ov)
New Zealand trail by 60 runs with 1 wicket remaining in the 1st innings
Test cricket's thrill escalates with a fast bowler on the prowl and Dushmantha Chameera had his best day in the jungle. His maiden five-for tore through New Zealand's batting line-up. All that was left was the final wicket pair, staring at a deficit of 60 runs.
It was his spell right after lunch that became the fulcrum on which the match spun. Sri Lanka spent the first session almost in slumber: they took 13.1 overs for 28 runs, and lost three wickets to be bowled out for 292. Then they spent the rest of the morning like a lightweight boxer thrown in a heavyweight fight - working within limitations and hoping for a mistake. After lunch, however, Sri Lanka did that thing all underdogs try and do. They punched and punched and punched, and were close to knocking their opponent out.
New Zealand lost five wickets for 72 runs in the second session and that slide began once Angelo Mathews woke up to the fact that he had the fastest bowler in the match. Chameera bounced Tom Latham out in minutes. Would the same tactic work against the No. 2-ranked batsman in the world? Yes, Kane Williamson was caught at long leg for 1. Would it work against a world-record holder? Ross Taylor, who had struck 290 against Australia last month, bagged a duck. Chameera, with three Tests' experience behind him, had hustled New Zealand's in-form batsmen back into the dressing room and 81 for 0 became 89 for 4.
BJ Watling and Mitchell Santner did their best to fight, keeping each other company for 19 overs and scoring 40 runs. Both batsmen managed the short ball better, though Sri Lanka helped them by underusing their main threat. They faced only 10 deliveries from Chameera, who was put on ice for 21 overs after tea in addition to a 20-over wait to get his first ball of the match.
Perhaps it was a case of injury management. Sri Lanka's quicks have a history of breaking down, and it may have weighed on Mathews' mind. Chameera is a case study himself - after making just as startling an impression on Test debut in July, he spent the next few weeks out with a side strain.
That was the last thing on anyone's mind when he got through seven overs at a stretch before tea, getting the ball around the batsman's ear, and rarely missed his mark. His fastest delivery of 146 kph came in the sixth over of the spell.
By the time Chameera was done, McCullum may well have been nursing a bruised hand considering all the fending he had to do. Taylor and Williamson may be nursing bruised egos, and Latham would have suffered the most pain watching it all from the dressing room because it was his wicket that derailed the innings. He had surveyed the change in field - short leg and leg slip installed close, deep square leg and long leg posted back - and yet the first short ball he got, he tucked it to Dimuth Karunaratne's hands at leg slip.
Martin Guptill had just completed a pretty fifty, but next ball he was caught at slip trying to slog Rangana Herath for a six, when long-on and long-off were back.
The short-ball attack was continued by Nuwan Pradeep who got McCullum to top edge a hook to the boundary rider at fine leg, but he had overstepped by an inch. Sri Lanka looked to their senior to be their savior again, and Herath had McCullum inside edging to silly point seven balls after his reprieve. Kusal Mendis was the man under the lid, staying low and reaching to his right to claim a sharp catch minutes before tea.
Until then the day had gone New Zealand's way. There were only three Sri Lanka wickets standing when play began half an hour early and the slips were lined up like a shooting gallery, only these targets wanted to be hit. In humid conditions and with the seamers deciding to plant six balls on the same spot, business was booming. Their biggest scalp came within the first half hour.
Latham moved to his right to hold on to a low catch and Mathews, who had passed 4000 Test runs, was walking back having added only 14 to his overnight 63. Mathews felt like he had to play Southee's angle into him from wide of the crease, and though he did so with soft hands, New Zealand's cordon had moved up since the first day when one catch fell short of Taylor at first slip.
Another reminder of the first day occurred when a Neil Wagner bouncer struck Suranga Lakmal's right shoulder and then dropped onto the base of middle stump. Again the bails did not fall, but it didn't cost New Zealand much. Wagner tried the short ball again and Lakmal fended a catch to gully. Bracewell, as he had done in Dunedin, picked up the last wicket of the Sri Lanka innings.
New Zealand's openers began steadily in their 81-run stand. With the sun beating down on a glorious day in Hamilton, the sideways movement was diminished. Guptill and Latham spent the first nine overs working that out - 19 runs, with only three fours. Having sussed the conditions, the openers took 42 runs off the next 11 overs, with nine fours and two sixes.
The bounce and pace in the pitch, however, was outstanding. So Sri Lanka simply set their tearaway loose.
Day 3
Sri Lanka 292 & 133
New Zealand 237 & 142/5 (42.0 ov)
New Zealand require another 47 runs with 5 wickets remaining
The sun was out, the sky was blue and the Sunday crowd added to a picture postcard day in Hamilton. Sri Lanka took a trip to Seddon Park to while the time away with a bit of cricket and were ambushed by New Zealand's bouncers.
Sri Lanka began the day needing one wicket to end New Zealand's first innings; they got it in six balls. Then came their best opening stand in 2015 - 71 runs - and then they lost 10 wickets for 62 runs in 13.5 overs to hasten the Test to its climax. The hosts need 47 more to finish their Test season with a win, and they have Kane Williamson at the crease, looking at a century and the record for most runs by a New Zealander in a calendar year. He is 22 runs away from both landmarks.
Sri Lanka kept the contest alive with a few late strikes, and need five more to level the series. But they would rue the batting collapse earlier in the day - a wicket every six runs. You would think Tim Southee and company pulled elephants out of their hats to make that happen. Nope, all they did was decide they'd bowl short. Dimuth Karunaratne and Udara Jayasundera fell fending. Dinesh Chandimal picked out leg gully. Kusal Mendis, the top-scorer with 46, and Angelo Mathews, the captain, fell hooking and to cap it all off, there was a comical run out involving the tailenders. Nuwan Pradeep and Dushmantha Chameera were clumped at the keeper's end, giving a gleeful Neil Wagner the time to collect the throw from third man, run to the other end and knock the stumps over.
The bounce on this Hamilton pitch has been ample and true. Batsmen were given the luxury to leave balls even on middle stump if the length was short. They wouldn't be bowled, but no one from either side has caught onto that fact. As a result 31 of the 35 wickets in this Test have been out caught.
The other trait of this surface - its sharpish pace - may have worked against the batsmen though. So too the number of catching fielders for the defensive shot. Leg slip and short leg were permanent fixtures and as the day wore on, New Zealand dabbled with silly point, short midwicket and a fly slip as well. The ball was coming onto the bat, so aggressive strokes seemed a pertinent option to evade them. Except Sri Lanka couldn't.
Tom Latham and Martin Guptill fared no better in the second innings against Chameera. Williamson, even with a bum right knee, kept Sri Lanka at bay by putting on 67 runs with Ross Taylor and 52 more with Brendon McCullum. It took Chameera to break both stands and that was Sri Lanka's problem; none of the others made New Zealand nervous, until three minutes to the stumps when a lovely Suranga Lakmal outswinger got rid of Mitchell Santner.
There has been clear cut phases of play whenever this match has turned - Chandimal's ferocity on the first day, Chameera's burst on the second and on the third, it was Doug Bracewell's two wickets in three balls.
Karunaratne and Kusal Mendis had controlled the innings capably until then. They had walked out with a 55-run first-innings advantage on the back of their mind and the responsibility of turning that into a match-winning one on their shoulders. They were together for 22.4 overs; an age of prosperity in the context of the chaos that followed.
It took an excellent delivery to break through their resolve, and it took a lot out of the bowler Bracewell as well. He had just changed ends, and changed tactics as well. Every ball of the 23rd over was short and the fourth one came right at Karunaratne's nose. He was stuck in the crease and could only fend it into the slips. Two balls later, Jayasundera was walking back. He had barely marked his guard when a ripper of a short ball came his way. The attempt to sway away seemed to have worked - New Zealand's appeal was denied by on-field umpire Paul Reiffel - but DRS came into the picture to change all that.
It had seemed a straightforward call for TV umpire Richard Kettleborough when a flash appeared on Jayasundera's glove as the ball went past. The problem though was it vanished in the next frame. There was no spike on real time snicko either. But a zoomed-in camera angle from behind the batsman broke the deadlock. There seemed to be definite deflection, Kettleborough said he saw the glove move as well and gave it out.
Reiffel looked rather disgruntled as his call was overruled and Jayasundera was even more so as he made a slow trudge back. Later, a split-screen replay indicated the change in direction happened before the ball was anywhere near the glove. Kettleborough did not get to see this though at the time of his adjudication.
Sri Lanka's rage against the (DRS) machine would grow later in the day when Taylor survived a close lbw shout. Rangana Herath, who had induced the mistake by getting the ball to straighten, walked off in a stormy mood as replays showed the impact was marginally outside off. Had umpire Reiffel given it, DRS would have ended up confirming that and New Zealand could have been 34 for 3.
Barring that episode, it was pace that had the greatest impact. Specifically bouncers, which are Wagner's strength. He nabbed Chandimal, Sri Lanka's best batsman of the series, at leg gully. Sri Lanka's best batsman of the morning though was Mendis. He was approaching a maiden Test fifty at lunch, having weathered a blow to his right hand. It didn't hurt his timing too much, considering the eight fours he had. Going for another one soon after the break to claim the landmark, he picked out square leg and Santner took a stunning catch on the boundary's edge. Eighty-nine balls of hard work undone by a poor shot. It broke Southee's duck in the wickets column, he went on to take four of them. Less than as many Sri Lanka batsmen made it to double-figures.
Day 4
Sri Lanka 292 & 133
New Zealand 237 & 189/5
New Zealand won by 5 wickets
Two balls into the day and every question that hung over the Hamilton Test was given an answer. New Zealand would win it, and the series as well, to equal their longest undefeated home streak in Tests. Kane Williamson would get his century, finish unbeaten and secure the most Test runs by a batsman from his country in a calendar year.
The one from whom he took that record, Brendon McCullum, said "it was an innings of sheer class from the king." The ICC seemed to agree, as half an hour later, Williamson became the No. 1-ranked batsman in Test cricket moving past AB de Villiers.
New Zealand needed 47 runs. Sri Lanka needed five wickets. The game was still in the balance when day four commenced. But its eventual outcome became clear when Williamson met a short ball from Dushmantha Chameera and addressed it to the long-leg boundary with the gentlest little pull.
Sri Lanka's fastest bowler may have been on show and balls dug in had hurried almost every other batsman on a pacy Seddon Park pitch, but everything happened in slow motion for Williamson, as if he had discovered the secret to manipulate space-time. His 108 came off only 164 balls. It was his fifth century in 2015, another New Zealand record, and 13th overall. If he keeps that rate up in 2016 he could break Martin Crowe's New Zealand record of 17 Test centuries. Crowe took 12 years to get there, Williamson is only in his fifth.
Sri Lanka's challenge this morning did not seem the most potent. Angelo Mathews often had only one slip, and a gully as an afterthought, even to a brand new batsman in BJ Watling. New Zealand found singles with relative ease and Williamson pierced gaps as he pleased. He got to his ton by steering another short ball to the long-leg boundary, and went past McCullum's 1164 runs in 2014. Five overs later, he was walking back having helped his team to 13 matches at home without a defeat, a streak stretching back to March 2012.
Sri Lanka had much to rue at the end of it all. A fine counterattack to score the biggest total of the match in the first day, a first-innings lead of 55, a strong opening stand thereafter, not to mention Chameera's wholehearted effort - 9 for 115 in the match. Everything looked good for their chances of victory, and a drawn series in overseas conditions.
Then their batting collapsed - 10 wickets for 62 runs in 13.5 overs. There was no recovery from that. So they have to settle for two wins and 10 losses in New Zealand from 17 tries since 1983. Only Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have fared worse.
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