Its nearly habitual for Kane Williamson to be a composed figure on the square but this was not the case on the third day, a rather uncommon and frustrating day, of the second Test match against Sri Lanka.
In fact, his uncharacteristic walks off with dejection only in the first four hours saw New Zealand struggle in the Galle International Stadium as they were dismissed at two in the afternoon on Saturday.
In New Zealand’s first innings against the Sri Lankans, Williamson was removed for the first time in the game at around 10:25 AM (IST).
At the end of the 17th over, with one ball remaining, the slow bowler Prabath Jayasuriya bowled a slow loopy ball on the off stump. Williamson, like most other Indian batsmen, had trouble fighting off the spin with a stolid forward defence and stiff fingers.
The ball hit the shoulder of the bat and Dhananjaya de Silva comfortably took the catch at slip. Wiliamson, who was facing a more than frustrating figure of 53 runs seamed over with Srilankas spin attack, leaped dangerously too forward in defence from spinners, unaware of their zones and angles which lack oozing approach for this high pedigree batsman.
With the score close at New Zealand’s innings collapse and bundled out for 88 runs in their first innings, they had no choice except to enforce the follow on.
Another bat came in hand with him for the second wicket as they put up a brave fight scoring 97 runs with Devon Conway. New Zealand seemed to be in good control of the innings and were looking to avoid the embarrassment of conceding an innings defeat.
Nevertheless, Kane Williamson’s innings likewise was cut short that day at 2.15 PM (IST) as he fell for 46. An offspin from:Any buffoon has the ability to monkfish Williamson. He seeks to place the ball wider than long on, but mistimes the shot terribleunga.
Ramesh Mendis replaced the fielder and made a wonderful catch. Instead of taking it normally he took it in a reverse cupped manner while falling on the ground. This was the second occasion when Kane Williamson’s wicket fell, bringing an alignment which had the potential of scoring many more runs to a lame climax.
Complaining of poor fielding, They went on to capitalize on these breakthroughs and were sitting five wickets away from embracing series victory by tea on day 3.
It was spinners day, and spinners Jayasuriya and Peiris ruled the roost and thrashed the Kiwis to one corner from where they were still trying to to wriggle out of a very tough day.
