Prabath Jayasuriya registered five wickets to help Sri Lanka seal a victory over New Zealand by 63 runs on the concluding day of the first Test match at Galle.
Chasing a target of 275, the Kiwis were dismissed for 211 just a little more than fifteen minutes of the cut-off time after Rachin Ravindra’s efforts reaped the highest score of 92.
Ravindra had been fighting like a lone warrior on Sunday, in a spin hunters’ Galle pitch where New Zealand has been defeated in every match, all the four test matches played before this one on New Zealand’s behalf.
Ninety-two by Ravindra was the top score by any New Zealander at the ground as it eclipsed Ross Taylor’s 89 in 2019.
But Ravindra’s fightback was stopped by Prabath Jayasuriya who bowled him out lbw while he was backing footed after scoring just one more run to the overnight total.
Jayasuriya who had nine wickets in the match and 5-68 in the second innings bowed out the match by sending six’s William O’Rourke to the pavilion for a duck.
O’Rourke, 23, had eight wickets in the match and making it, his second five-wicket haul of eight in the match, in just his third test in the first innings.
In the second innings of the match, left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel took 6 wickets for 90 runs which are the best figures recorded by any New Zealand bowler in Sri Lanka after Daniel Vettori’s 6 for 64 in Colombo in the year of 1998.
Thursday is the scheduled date for the second and last test of the series which is up for grabs and will be played at the same ground.
