Warner and Rogers fall after strong start

David Warner scored an emotional century and Chris Rogers fell just short of triple figures himself as Australia piled on the runs during the first two sessions in Sydney. Their 200-run opening stand came at a brisk rate and entertained the Sydney crowd for three hours before both men fell in consecutive overs, either side of a drinks break.

By tea, the Australians had moved on to 2 for 242, with Steven Smith on 28 and Shane Watson on 10, and Virat Kohli was still searching for answers on a good batting pitch offering little in the way of spin, swing or seam. Smith especially looked like carrying on the work of Warner and Rogers and had struck four boundaries, including a lofted drive over long-on off R Ashwin to get off the mark.

He had come to the crease after Rogers played on and gave Mohammed Shami a breakthrough, the frustration evident on Rogers' face as he walked off having missed another chance for a century. His past five Test innings have all brought half-centuries but his most recent hundred came in Port Elizabeth in February, and the conditions in Sydney appeared perfect for another.

Warner had fallen in the previous over, out for 101 when he tried to turn Ashwin to leg and instead popped a catch up to M Vijay at slip. Australia's total at the time was 200 and it was the first double-century opening stand by an Australian pair in a Test since Warner and Ed Cowan put on 214 at the WACA against India three years ago.

Warner's 12th Test hundred had arrived from 108 deliveries with a pull through square-leg for four off Shami, and his now traditional leaping celebration followed, as well as a look up to the sky. It had been an emotional innings for Warner, back at the SCG where he had ridden on the motorised stretcher with his friend Phillip Hughes after Hughes was struck down by a bouncer in November.

But the hundred was not the most poignant moment; earlier Warner had moved to 63 with a single just before lunch. He removed his helmet and gloves and got down on the ground to kiss the turf beside the pitch where Hughes had fallen. Hughes will forever be 63 not out, and Warner was too at lunch.

He had reached his half-century from just 45 deliveries but generally was in control, going after anything loose from the Indians, and there were plenty of opportunities. His century featured 16 boundaries, including a well-struck reverse sweep off Ashwin. He also had moments of luck, notably an inside edge past leg stump early in his innings and a cut that lobbed centimetres short of KL Rahul at point.

Rahul had retained his place despite his inauspicious debut in Melbourne, but things didn't get any better for him in Sydney. He was stationed at second slip when he dropped a regulation chance off the bowling of Shami to give Rogers a reprieve on 19, and next ball Rogers slashed a cut for four through point.

Rogers played confidently and was especially impressive when driving on the front foot. After lunch he continued to move the score along at a decent rate, driving straight back down the ground off the fast bowlers and pulling and cutting well. The century stand was the sixth between Rogers and Warner from only 31 innings together at the top of the order.

They were operating against an inexperienced India line-up - for the first time since September 2001 India were playing a Test with no members of their side having more than 50 Test caps to his name. Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma were all left out, along with the retired MS Dhoni, and Bhuvneshwar, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Wriddhiman Saha came in.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-india-2014-15/content/story/816883.html

Williamson-Watling record stand pummels Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka 356 and 45 for 1 (Silva 20*, Craig 1-0) need another 345 runs to beat New Zealand 221 and 524 for 5 dec (Williamson 242*, Watling 142*)

Kane Williamson and BJ Watling set a new record for the sixth wicket in Tests

Kane Williamson and BJ Watling used the slow grind to drive away the thoughts Sri Lanka had at the start of day four of winning the Wellington Test and levelling the series. In the process, they first broke the 27-year-old record of New Zealand's highest sixth-wicket partnership against Sri Lanka, and then smashed the all-time record for the sixth-wicket stand set up last year by Watling and Brendon McCullum at the same ground, making redundant the bronze plaque ground authorities had set in concrete only three days ago.

During the course of their unbeaten 365-run partnership, Williamson reached his maiden Test double-century, while Watling grafted his way to his fourth Test hundred. The two batsmen stretched Sri Lanka's wait for a wicket to almost eight hours, before McCullum provided the visiting fielders some relief by declaring an hour before the close of play. The 390-run target was well past the highest total successfully chased at the ground.

Even though the pitch was flat, Sri Lanka were left with the tricky task of surviving 17 overs on the fourth evening. Trent Boult and Tim Southee did not manage any extravagant swing but still beat the Sri Lankan openers regularly. Mark Craig struck in his first over, getting Dimuth Karunaratne caught at mid-off. It was the only wicket to fall on the day.

Williamson's fighting innings did his growing reputation as one of the world's best batsmen no harm. He has been in terrific form in all forms of the game and his previous two Test centuries had both been in excess of 150. He was dismissed a couple of hits short of a double-century just over a month ago, in Sharjah, but there was the same inevitability about him getting to the landmark in Wellington, as there was with Kumar Sangakkara, once he had manoeuvred the New Zealand innings safely till lunch.

Plenty of singles were collected square of the pitch on both sides. His drives were controlled shots, yielding twos or three. The first boundary came in the 13th over of the morning - also, the first for 30 overs - as Williamson stepped out to drive Herath to wide long-on, moving to 99 with that shot. An over later, he clipped one to the leg side to complete his ninth century - and his third in the second innings. His second boundary of the day, one with more flourish, came late in the first session as he punched Nuwan Pradeep through covers.

After lunch, however, Williamson's intent signalled New Zealand had a target in mind for Sri Lanka. The boundaries were not easy to get with the field scattered, but he kept pushing the ball in the gaps with efficient, but hardly noticeable, shots. He stepped out against Rangana Herath, who had been ineffective in this Test, and chipped over midwicket to reach the 200 landmark, the shot also bringing the 300 of the partnership between Williamson and Watling. Two overs later, he played the perfect cover drive off the second new ball to become the fastest New Zealand batsman to 3000 runs, beating Martin Crowe's record by three innings.

Sri Lanka did not help their chances by letting slip another opportunity to dismiss Williamson early in the day. The batsman had been dropped on 29 and 60 on the third day, and soon after he reached his hundred Herath extracted the outside edge with a delivery that reared sharply off an otherwise benign pitch, but the wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene could not hold on to the deflection.

It was a tough chance, and the only one the bowlers were able to generate all morning. By the time a second came - a missed stumping with Williamson on 233 - Sri Lanka were far behind in the game. There was hardly any swing, seam or spin from the pitch. Sri Lanka's bowlers tried different lines, bowled from either sides of the stumps, the captain set up leg-side traps, and managed to keep the boundary count to three in the first session, but Williamson and Watling kept turning the strike over.

With the batsmen hardly facing any trouble and plenty of time remaining in the match, the match drifted into the zone in which the probability of a Sri Lanka win rapidly diminished towards zero. Slips were removed and men placed in the deep to keep a tab on the scoring. But that in turn opened up gaps for Williamson and Watling to pick more singles and twos.

Watling's batting heavily depends on dabs behind point and clips through square leg. It's his comfort zone and he had no intentions of coming out of it. It meant that while Williamson was immovable at the other end, Watling also was testing the bowlers' mental resolve, blocking everything out. It was fitting that his century came off a soft push to cover point, off the 270th delivery he had faced.

For most of the day, he had just one boundary to his name. Even after crossing his century, his primary mode of making runs was ... running. Only towards the end of the innings did he played forceful shots in front of square, including a lofted shot off Herath that landed over the boundary at wide long-on that took the partnership to 350. The record may have been updated, but one half of it remained with Watling. He finished unbeaten on 142, his career-best score.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/new-zealand-v-sri-lanka-2014-15/content/story/816887.html

What we often miss in World Cups

Memory heightens the sense that things used to be better in sport

I spent a fair bit of the football World Cup in Brazil last summer eating Japanese food with Barney Ronay, so the tone of his review of the tournament in the Guardian amid all the end-of-year retrospectives didn't come as a great surprise. He spoke of the excitement of the early rounds, the tremendous flair and skill and unpredictability of the group stage, and of the sense of disappointment as a more familiar, more cautious football took over (with the glorious exception of Germany's 7-1 win over Brazil in the semi-final).

I broadly agreed with his sense of weariness, with the feeling that there was something anti-climactic about the final fortnight. The below-the-line commenters, those unacknowledged arbiters of rectitude, though, were even more apoplectic than usual. Somebody, apparently, had decided that this was a great World Cup - it was, comfortably, the best since 1998 - and that meant that criticising it was anathema.

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The vast majority of the bile - and there is something quite distressing about the levels of vitriol people reach for because somebody didn't enjoy something as much as they had - was ludicrous, but I did wonder whether journalists who cover tournaments like the World Cup end up conditioned to frustration because of the sheer exhaustion inherent in covering them.

I recognise that covering a World Cup, whether in football or in cricket or any other sport, is a dream job and that I'm hugely privileged to be able to do it. But working at a World Cup is unbelievably hard. In football, you've just finished the season, the climax of the league finale, and the FA Cup and Champions League finals are barely over before you're bashing out preview material. Then the tournament begins and, for six weeks, you're working 18 hours a day, with no time to eat, exercise or sleep properly.

By the time you reach the quarter-finals, you're exhausted and, even worse, you've already written everything there possibly is to be said about the teams that are still in the tournament. All you want to do is have a healthy meal at a normal time of day, maybe go for a run and have eight hours sleep, preferably without Argentinian fans singing " Brasil, decime qué se siente" outside the window till 4am. So maybe it is the case that we're by the latter stages inclined to dyspepsia; we need something like the 7-1 to get going.




We do experience things differently as children. There is less sense of consequence: there is just sport, happening, often somewhere exotic



This is purely a World Cup phenomenon. I love tournament football. I've been to six African Cups of Nations, three European Championships, three World Cups, a Copa America, an Asian Cup and an Under-20 World Cup. The sense of being in a bubble, in which nothing but the tournament matters, can be invigorating. It's just that the World Cup takes six weeks, not four, and so fatigue has set in by the end. What a strange thing, then, that football's authorities - and cricket's are even worse in this regard - have designed a tournament so bloated that some of the sport's most devoted followers, whose job it is to follow the sport and tease out its nuances day by day, find the final stages indigestible.

Amid the dross, one comment stood out. "You," it said, "just want the World Cup to reproduce the magic of your childhood." At first it seemed weird that that should be a criticism: how outrageous that somebody should want something to be as good as it used to be. But then it occurred to me that, whether by design or not, the sentiment had a profundity. We do experience things differently as children. There is less sense of consequence: there is just sport, happening, often somewhere exotic (admittedly this wasn't true of the first cricket World Cup I really appreciated, in 1983) and we know it matters. We dip out, we come back. We're probably not entirely clear on the structure of the tournament or who's expected to win; nothing is bogged down by narrative and so we don't get that sense of ennui in the knockout stages.

And perhaps that is part of the appeal of World Cups, that they do take us back to a time when we watched them just for the sport and the thrill of competition, unencumbered by the complexities of context. That attempt to recapture the past, though, is doomed to failure; it's impossible as adults to watch sport as we did in childhood, particularly given the nature of modern sports coverage (it may be in fact that the naivete with which we watched sport as children in the '80s and before is simply no longer possible).

Memory heightens the sense that things used to be better: we remember the great goals and the great games, the great players and the great innings, and forget the drabness in between. And so modern tournaments will always to fail to live up to past editions, our memories functioning essentially as romanticised highlights reels.

That's why World Cups, almost whatever the sport, come always with a sense of anti-climax - although it might help if modern World Cups, seemingly in every sport, didn't feel like such a chore.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/816471.html

We were all stumped' - Shastri

'

Captains have their own personalities and the best ones make players adapt to their thinking and methods'
MS Dhoni's retirement from Test cricket was a year-end bombshell. How did you and the dressing room take it
Shastri: I think we were all stumped.
Surely there must have been some indication of this; some words uttered in an unguarded moment, or his body language…
None. It came like a bolt from the blue. Not till after he returned from the post-match presentation did I come to know, when he had a quick word with me, then the players. I understand he had not even spoken to his family about it.

There are strong and differing opinions back home on his retirement mid-series. How do you see it?

Retirement is a very personal issue. But the best sportspersons know when it's time to go. Who is to question that?

So you agree with his decision?

It was an unexpected decision no doubt, but a courageous one. In my esteem, Dhoni has gone up by miles. He has not waited to complete 100 Tests and all such pointless statistical stuff. He did not want any farewell fanfare. That shows his character. He is different and quite remarkable.

But he could have played the last Test even if he didn't want to captain…

He felt that he is not doing justice to himself and the team. That should earn respect, not doubt.

There's been talk in the media here that Virat Kohli's rising influence - and your open support for him - changed the power equation in the dressing room and could have precipitated Dhoni's decision…

I've heard that trash. And it is just that - trash.

So there was no rift between Dhoni and Kohli even on cricketing matters?

You guys have no idea of the respect Dhoni commands, not just from Virat but every member of the squad, support staff and administration.

Is he still with the team?

He will be in Australia but not with the team.

There were reports that he is a standby for Wridhiman Saha…

If needed, of course.

Looking back, how would you rate Dhoni as a Test player?

There will be arguments that he was not the greatest Indian cricketer, but to me he was no less than anybody else.

What according to you made him distinctive?

The composure given his dramatic rise to superstardom, the way he handled egos as captain, the consistency of his performance and his total commitment to the cause of Indian cricket. In fact, the way he conducted himself over a decade in all aspects. But wait, you are making this sound like an obituary. He is still around and I think he has enough left in him to play limited-overs cricket like a king.

There will be a big cultural shift in the dressing room as Kohli takes complete charge. Dhoni and he are like chalk and cheese as persons. Is there a danger this could disorient the players?

I don't think so. In my days, I played under several captains, none of whom were alike. Captains have their own personalities and the best ones make players adapt to their thinking and methods.

Short-tempered individuals can also make the dressing room volatile. What actually happened between Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan in the Brisbane Test?

Some from your tribe should be writing screenplays for films. It is utter nonsense. Not a word was exchanged between the two. Let me add that Kohli has been part of the team for almost five years now. The boys are used to him. Several of them have played with him since their Under-19 days.

You've praised Kohli's aggression, but some of his comments about the Australians, particularly Johnson seemed needlessly provocative…

That's his personality. He is aggressive, passionate and wears his heart on his sleeve. But he's also prepared to walk the talk. Remember also, he's only 26 and still getting used to captaincy.

Despite the brave talk and overt show of aggression, India still lost the series. Does that not disappoint you?

Not at all. With a little luck, the scoreline could well have been different. This is a young team that has acquitted itself very creditably.

Australia are also in a rebuilding process with several young players…

True, but they have a far more experienced bowling attack which has been the big difference.

How do you see India's prospects in Test cricket going ahead?

There is hard work ahead no doubt. Primarily, we have to get or develop bowlers who can get 20 wickets regularly. But I am extremely bullish. The most important thing is we have got an aggressive mindset. Let's talk 12-15 months down the road.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-india-2014-15/content/story/815431.html

Shastri 'bullish' about India's Test future

India team director Ravi Shastri is "bullish" about the Test side's future, saying that the key was to develop an attack that could take 20 wickets on a regular basis. The deciding factor in the ongoing four-Test series, which Australia won after maintaining their 2-0 lead by drawing the third Test at the MCG, according to Shastri, was the difference between the bowling groups: Australia's had experience and India's did not.

"There's hard work ahead no doubt," Shastri said in an interview to Ayaz Memon. "Primarily, we have to get or develop bowlers who can get 20 wickets regularly. But I am extremely bullish. The most important thing is we have got an aggressive mindset. Let's talk 12-15 months down the road."

India will be led by Virat Kohli in the final Test in Sydney, following MS Dhoni's sudden retirement from Test cricket at the end of the third match in Melbourne, a development Shastri said had left the dressing-room "stumped". However, he said the change in leadership was unlikely to affect the players' mindsets.

"In my days, I played under several captains, none of whom were alike," Shastri said. "Captains have their own personalities and the best ones make players adapt to their thinking and methods."

Kohli has been in the news on this tour not only for the runs he has made, but also for his aggressive behaviour on the field and a confrontational press conference in Melbourne, where he said he did not respect all the Australian players. Shastri backed Kohli, despite the results not falling India's way.

"That's his personality," Shastri said when asked if Kohli's comments, especially those on Mitchell Johnson, had been unnecessarily provocative. "He is aggressive, passionate and wears his heart on his sleeve. But he's also prepared to walk the talk. Remember also, he's only 26 and still getting used to captaincy. With a little luck, the score line could well have been different. This is a young team that has acquitted itself very creditably."

Shastri squashed reports suggesting Dhoni's retirement could have been precipitated by the rising influence of Kohli in the dressing room, saying such speculation was "trash".

"You guys have no idea of the respect Dhoni commands," Shastri said, "not just from Virat but every member of the squad, support staff and administration.

When asked if he had an inkling of Dhoni's retirement, Shastri said: "None. It came like a bolt from the blue. Not till after he returned from the post-match presentation did I come to know when he had a quick word with me, then the players. I understand he had not even spoken to his family about it.

"It was an unexpected decision no doubt, but a courageous one. In my esteem Dhoni has gone up by miles. He hasn't waited to complete 100 Tests and all such pointless statistical stuff. He didn't want any farewell fanfare. That shows his character. He's different and quite remarkable."

http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-india-2014-15/content/story/815439.html

De Villiers hundred gives SA slight edge

AB de Villiers' 21st Test century gave South Africa a vital lead

AB de Villiers produced the outstanding innings that the Cape Town Test craved, but even his redoubtable efforts have yet to shake off West Indies. Facing a first-innings deficit of 92 runs at tea on the third day, they battled doggedly to clip that deficit to four runs by the close of the day. Eight wickets still stand. It has been a respectable effort.

If one leading bookmaker regarded West Indies as 12-1 outsiders at change of innings, it owed as much to the perceived imbalance between these two sides as the state of the game. But if this dry, cracked surface deteriorates at the right time for West Indies, they are still in this game. As yet, despite occasional uneven bounce and some slow turn, it is biding its time.

De Villiers' 148, his 21st Test hundred, was a gem. He was last out, finally silenced when he tried to deposit Marlon Samuels into the crowd and Shannon Gabriel caught him, second attempt, at long-on. He had become the first batsman to make good his start after eight had fallen between 42 and 68, most because of a lapse in concentration. But West Indies had hung in the match by removing the last five wickets for 37 runs in 14 overs.

De Villiers' progression to his century was another career highlight. In six balls, he introduced the reverse sweep, once and for all, into polite society: at least when he accompanies it anyway. Perhaps it takes the No. 1 ranked Test batsman in the world to play the shot with no sense of risk when a century is on his mind, a first-innings lead is beckoning and a Test is in the balance on a testing surface. Or perhaps it was all done by computer graphics.

De Villiers achieved that mood in one memorable over against Samuels, moving from 87 to 103 as he took 16 off the over, 10 of them with reverse sweeps so authoritative that had they been witnessed for the first time the shot would have seemed as politic as the straightest of forward defensives.

He displayed his rare ability to meld two distinct forms of the game, to introduce a daring approach borne of T20 cricket into a Test in the balance without the merest hint of ill-judgment. First came an assessment of the field, then a perfectly-timed adjustment of his bottom hand, finally a faultless execution. He fancies he can attack Samuels: it was both forthright and appropriate.

Quite why Samuels was bowling the fourth over after lunch with the Test so keenly poised and the second new ball only 15 overs old was a mystery, even allowing for West Indies' limited options. He didn't bowl another one. De Villiers welcomed him with a crease-scrubbing reversed sweep for four, rocked back to cut the next ball to the boundary, and polished off the over with another reverse - his third - which scooted away to the fence.

With South Africa still 102 behind at start of play, and a new ball just over 10 overs away, it was a period in which a lack of concentration could hand over the initiative. Fortunately for West Indies, Samuels' start to the day - three successive desultory full tosses - did not set the tone.

A ball change five overs into the day provided succour. Holder immediately dismissed Amla, finding just enough away movement from a tight line to find the edge. At the non-striker's end, de Villiers shook his head, not just at the wicket but at recognition that his job had become harder. Holder, recognising the opportunity, tightened his line and bowled the best spell of the match, finally resembling a third seamer's worth.

It was a tough entrance for Temba Bavuma, the diminutive kid from Langa, a Cape Town township, playing in only his second Test; the first black African batsman to play Tests for South Africa. A push through mid-on to get off the mark was warmly greeted. But Gabriel picked up Bavuma in his second over, the batsman playing on, minded to leave.

When West Indies were not confronted by de Villiers, they fell foul of some mediocre umpiring. Quite how Sulieman Benn maintained a sunny disposition when Simon Harmer was not given out for his own version of the reverse sweep was a mystery.

Harmer swept the left-arm spinner out of the rough and, although umpire Paul Reiffel declared not out, a West Indies review clearly showed the ball deflecting off the glove as it looped up to the wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin. The TV umpire, Billy Bowden, was not convinced. West Indies were bemused. Gentle Ben was a TV series in the 1960s involving an orphaned bear, but for a few seconds there seemed to be the chance of a remake.

It fitted a frustrating pattern for Benn as South Africa edged towards supremacy. Van Zyl's unconvincing innings ended on 33 when he fell lbw to Samuels, but he needed two reviews to get that far. A South Africa review spared him when he padded up to Benn and then West Indies failed to overturn a decision when he botched a sweep. Finally, they got him - but even that needed a review.

De Villiers apart, South Africa's first innings malfunctioned. Vernon Philander was run out without scoring, failing to steal a single to Jason Holder at midwicket; Harmer's debut innings ended when he fell lbw to Jerome Taylor; and Steyn became the third South Africa batsman to be run out, well short as Leon Johnson hit direct from mid-off.

There was much work for West Indies' batsmen to do to complete a battling day; indeed, a battling Test. When Morne Morkel had Devon Smith caught at the wicket and Kraigg Braithwaite was bowled by Harmer - his first few overs showing good, attacking purpose - it looked bleak for West Indies, but Johnson and Samuels saw out the final 20 overs to leave this Test still full of possibilities.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/south-africa-v-west-indies-2014-15/content/current/story/816381.html

Kane Williamson the key if New Zealand are to salvage second test with Sri Lanka

MASTER BATSMAN: Kane Williamson at the crease for New Zealand yesterday

Usually one chance is all Kane Williamson needs.

Given two lives yesterday on the Basin Reserve, you would bet on New Zealand's batting kingpin now closing it out for his country at the scene of his greatest escape.

Williamson resumes this morning on 80 alongside BJ Watling, the loyal lieutenant of many a Black Caps batting salvage, with the hosts 253-5 and leading Sri Lanka by 118 with two days to play in the second test.

It's nicely poised again and the bookmakers have Sri Lanka slight favourites, deservedly so, but with Williamson's recent formline and past deeds on the track, the Black Caps remain confident they can close out the series after arriving in Wellington 1-0 up.

Just three times has a total of 200-plus been chased down at the Basin, the highest 277-3 by Pakistan in 2003.

Nearly three years ago against South Africa at the same ground, Williamson survived two early drops, one disputed catch and a broken box courtesy of a Dale Steyn thunderbolt to hit a match-saving century.

Yesterday he survived letoffs on 29 and 60, crucial chances as an impressive Sri Lankan side had the hosts on the rack after Kumar Sangakkara's Sunday match-turner.

It wasn't quite the immortal "you've just dropped the World Cup", but maybe a share of the ANZ Trophy slipped from the tourists grasp as well.

"The first two sessions were brilliant. Unfortunately the dropped catch cost us a lot," said Dhammika Prasad, who was mortified to see Sri Lanka's best bowler Nuwan Pradeep shell the offering at long leg after two juggles.

Earlier, with New Zealand leading by one run, spinner Rangana Herath couldn't hold a blistering return catch at chest height.

The 24-year-old plundered four test centuries last year and with 20 more today it will be a fifth in a 12-month period. Williamson was in no hurry and faced an even 200 balls, peppering the boundary just six times as his solid defence and soft hands kept a lively Sri Lankan pace attack at bay.

Watling was a stoic 46 not out, the pair adding an unbroken 94 to lift the Black Caps from strife.

"Kane and BJ are perfect guys to be out there at the moment. They've shown how determined they are, and we've shown when we've been in these situations before how we can get through; India last year and over in Sharjah," opener Tom Latham said.

"We've certainly got fighting characteristics throughout the side and we're looking forward to tomorrow to keep digging in."

Latham felt anything over 200 was a challenging chase and New Zealand would back themselves to defend as much as the current batsmen and reasonably strong tail could eke out.

"You can see how quickly it can change out there. We were 75-0 and then all of a sudden 80-3."

It was jittery for much of the third day on a familiar Basin strip that bowlers had to bend their backs on, and batsmen had to throw it away to get out.

There was a bit of both, notably some more poor selection from the home batsmen.

Openers Latham and Hamish Rutherford posted their first 50-partnership in seven innings, in contrasting style; Latham looking compact and composed, and Rutherford anything but.

Rutherford also received a howler that gave the Black Caps some breathing space.

He gloved one from Prasad, but umpire Steve Davis had his arm out for no ball. Replays showed Prasad's foot was behind the line, but there was no recourse via the decision review system.

Rutherford was a mixed bag. He played some authoritative drives but there was always the feeling his number was up.

After batting nearly two hours for 40, he infuriatingly fell into the short-pitched trap from Pradeep (3-57), cutting to third man with the field back.

It may prolong his test career but he still has technical and temperament worries at the top level where it's now 16 innings without a 50.

It sparked a mini collapse of 3-4 in 30 balls, with Latham (35) driving at a wide one and Ross Taylor fooled by a gem from Herath for a seven-ball duck.

Skipper Brendon McCullum's disappointing test continued, after a dream year.

He batted an hour for 22 before being beaten for pace by Prasad, his DRS review unsuccessful.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/64681197/kane-williamson-the-key-if-new-zealand-are-to-salvage-second-test-with-sri-lanka