New Zealand v Sri Lanka 1st Test Day 2

The first test between NZ and Sri Lanka is proving to be a low scoring wicket-fest. So low scoring that at one stage today the match threatened to be over by the close of day 2. The reason that we are going to see some play on day 3 is because of Kumar Sangakkara, the Paul Collingwood of Sri Lanka. Paul Collingwood with testicles that is.

Sangakkara knew exactly what to do while Rome was burning all around him today and he did not fiddle. As Sri Lanka fell to 99 for 8, Sangakkara didn’t pinch a sneaky single from the first ball of the over and expose the tail to 5 deliveries from Shane Bond. No sir. He instead started to spank Shane Bond to all parts of Jade Stadium. Spanked off the middle of the bat I might add, to the rapturous applause of the sparse Christchurch crowd.

What Sangakkara intrinsically knew is that Shane Bond vs Lasith Malinga is an uneven bout with the odds mightily stacked in favour of the world class fast bowler. His job therefore, was to get as many runs as possible and dominate the strike. Between the fall of the 8th wicket and the close of play, Sangakkara took 75% of the strike and upped his strike rate to 120 (runs per 100 balls). This he did in a game where the scoring has been excruciatingly slow and wickets have been falling like trees at a Lumberjack convention.

Sangakkara knew when to defend, knew when to grind out the odd single, and then knew when to explode. He hit the ball cleanly when the time came, because he had commited to a positive course of action.

Sangakkara will most likely end up on the losing side, but he is least trying to give Sri Lanka a glimmer of hope. The match is being played on a seaming, swinging Kiwi deck and if Sangakkara can keep going for an hour or so in the morning, he may give Sri Lanka enough of a lead to at least cause a few jitters in the Kiwi dressing room.

Oh that England had been able to muster that kind of clarity of purpose at Adelaide.

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