[Watch] New Zealand’s Glenn Phillips cleans up Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva with absolute peach in SL vs NZ 1st Test

Right then, the first day of this Test match has remained unscathed even after chances of rain throughout the day and we have had 88 overs worth of play. The average first-innings total at Galle is about 365 runs and Sri Lanka seem to be heading close to that but with the loss of Kamindu Mendis, they will have to be watchful on Day 2. Can the Kiwis regroup and knock over the Lankan tail early on Day 2? Only time will tell. Join us on Thursday at 3.30 am GMT for the build-up of Day 2 with the cricketing action scheduled to begin at 4.30 am GMT.

New Zealand were very competitive with the ball in the first two sessions but everyone knew that the pitch would flatten out, especially after Tea and that’s what happened but their frontline spinners didn’t do much justice either. Ajaz Patel had a torrid time after his initial spell of 10 overs and whilst Mitchell Santner bowled tight, he didn’t look like picking up a wicket. Young pacer, William O’Rourke was the star with 3 wickets and towards the end, Patel did come back to get the crucial wicket of Kamindu Mendis as all-rounder Glenn Phillips did a lot of the heavy lifting to make up the overs and bowled decently well too.

The final session was Lanka’s best in terms of not just runs scored but the scoring rate as well which ensured, they knocked over 300 plus runs on Day 1 and set up the Test match nicely. Kamindu Mendis was the star of the show with a score of 50 or more now in all of his 7 Tests and his partnership worth 103 runs along with Kusal Mendis was the backbone of Lanka’s first innings. Kusal fell after reaching his fifty but Kamindu went on to score a stellar ton before falling to a fine delivery a few minutes before the end of the day’s play which has now allowed New Zealand to just sneak back into the game.

What a day of Test cricket we have witnessed in Galle. It was engrossing and things ebbed and flowed at a brisk pace and at the end of it all, hosts Sri Lanka will be the happier of the two sides heading into Day 2 not by much though.