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Points shared in opening New Zealand test
It was evident at the end of day one that neither Sri Lanka or New Zealand had serious intentions on winning the opening test match played at Napier. The pitch assisted that cause. It did not have a great deal of pace, very little sideway movement and hardly any spin, just occasional turn on day five. A track where batsmen could make merry.

The mental outlook of both teams was defensive. New Zealand were battered and bruised by the all-powerful Australians. They were shell shocked from being nailed in both forms of the game. It is never easy to pick up the pieces right away. To add to that they had a number of players sidelined through injury. In particular they missed Jacob Oram, Darrell Tuffy and Daniel Vetori who formed a major part of their bowling attack at the start of the summer. Oram and Vettori now play the role of allrounders as well. All reasons to be defensive in the opening encounter.

Sri Lanka had lack of match practice as their main obstacle. They were engaging in test cricket after October of last year. In this day and age not playing in a test match for four months is a very, very long period of absence. In the past three months all the players played in a few provincial tournament games at domestic level. Most of those games of four day duration ended in under three days. Inadequate time in the middle. A player can be very good but match practice and match form is a vital ingredient for success. Those were Sri Lanka's reasons for a watchful approach.

As mentioned earlier the pitch was 65% : 35%, in favor of the batsmen. Should this have a three or four test series then a pitch of this nature is acceptable. When it is down to a two match series, more assistance must be given to the bowlers. Either the quicker bowlers must be able to exploit in the first 5 sessions of the game and get the batsmen to work hard for survival and runs or days 3 & 4 must be dominated by the spinners. Ideally a balance is the best, with days 2, 3 & 4 providing good batting conditions. It is nearly impossible to produce such a pitch!

The Black Caps more-or-less batted Sri Lanka out of the game by totalling 561 runs in their first essay. Any team who does that needs to collapse outright in their second innings if they are to loose the game. It also requires the opposing team to score 500 runs and score them quickly in about 4-and-a-half sessions.

When Sri Lanka came back in similar fashion to their opponents, to reach 351 for 3 wickets at the end of day 3, the writing was on the wall that a draw was the only possible result. The plusses from the match was that five batsmen made the most of the pitch and three bowlers toiled hard to achieve their share of success.

Pick of the batsmen from both camps was Mahela Jayawardane. He was at his brilliant best. From the moment he strode out to the middle, the ball met the middle of his bat. His footwork was precise, the balance was almost perfect, shot selection was good, making the results pleasing to witness. In fact, he made it look all so easy.

Similarly, Lasith Malinga was the outstanding bowler. His different, slinging, round arm action is going to surprise and baffle many batsmen all over the world. He has discovered the two main lengths that he should bowl. One short and rising to the level of the chest. The other aimed at the block-hold, crushing the batters toes or feet ! Well bowled Lasith, keep going.

There was some excitement on day 5 when the black caps lost some wickets and lost their way somewhat. But captain Flemming and Lou Vincent guided them to safety. As bad light intervened and some play was lost, both teams would have packed their bags content that the points were shared.

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