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| Saturday, 26 April 2003 |
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Fleming leads from the front with century by Sa'adi Thawfeeq New Zealand led from the front by its captain Stephen Fleming dominated the opening day of the first cricket Test against Sri Lanka batting themselves into a strong position at 207 for two wickets by the close at the Sara Stadium yesterday. Fleming won a vital toss and then led his side admirably with an unbeaten century to set up a big first innings total for his team. By the close, the New Zealand captain had scored a chancelesss 112 not out in a stay of 317 minutes and hit 14 fours facing 248 balls. It was his fifth Test century and it has given New Zealand the platform to try and push for a total of 450-500 today. "In the context my hundred was a pretty important one. But it was very tough going out there, the wicket and the outfield not being as quick as what we expected it to be. It's a big grind," said Fleming at the end of the day. With left-handed opener Mark Richardson who made a dour 85, Fleming added 172 for the second wicket in 284 minutes which was a new record for New Zealand against Sri Lanka. The pair came together as early as the 10th over when Matt Horne had fallen for four to a fine one-handed catch at backward shortleg by Dharmasena when he tried to play Prabath Nissanka off his hip. It was debutant Nissanka's maiden Test wicket. But it was to be Sri Lanka's only success for the next four and three quarter hours when Richardson and Fleming gradually got on top of the spin-oriented bowling attack to dominate proceedings. They were determined to play the waiting game and scored only off the loose deliveries. The cricket was tedious under the hot blazing sun, but the Kiwis meant business. The Sri Lankan attack lacked sting and they compounded their chance to capture a few more wickets when they dropped Richardson twice in the unproductive afternoon session. They were made to pay dearly for missing Richardson at 34 when Jayawardene dropped a simple chance at slip and again at 63 by Kaluwitharana. Muralitharan was the unlucky bowler on both occasions. The obdurate Richardson rode his luck and anchored the innings to play second fiddle to his captain. But at 85 he fell to fell to the second new ball, playing onto Vaas' first delivery. Horne having fallen as early as the 10th over, was forced to come out 19 overs later as runner for Richardson who suffered a hamstring injury in his left leg. Richardson who has been the most consistent run getter for New Zealand on this tour with previous knocks of 106 and 93, batted for a total of 329 minutes for his runs hitting seven fours and a six and faced 260 balls. New Zealand have a history of producing some of the great stonewallers in the game and Yesterday, Richardson and Fleming used up as much as 284 minutes and 455 balls in compiling their record partnership of 172. It surpassed the previous best of 141 for New Zealand against Sri Lanka for the second wicket by Bryan Young and Matt Horne at Dunedin in 1996-97. The first day pitch had nothing to offer the spinners and New Zealand having won the toss wasted no effort in trying to pile up a massive total when the pitch was playing at its best. Despite losing Horne early, they consolidated through their second wicket pair with Fleming being the dominant partner. He got well behind the line and right to the pitch of the ball and was always on the look out for the drive on the front foot to anything that was pitched short. Fleming completed his fifty in 165 minutes (6 fours) and his century with a cover drive for four off Muralitharan in 272 minutes off 221 balls (13 fours). Fleming said that it was an important toss to win but he would have been happy if they had another 20 to 30 runs on the board by the end of the day. "We had a pretty good day, but it was tough to survive against Murali. We can't score a lot of runs off him. I find reading him quite tough as most of our batsmen do. So survival was the first instinct and scoring second. That's why we ended up with a run rate of only 2 1/2," said Fleming. He said that he would hold back his judgment on whether his batsmen were playing Muralitharan better than before until the end of the series. "He's quality no doubt and soon he will be pressuring us tomorrow. The longer you face him I guess the more you develop your own technique against him," he said. Fleming said the wicket will be a good surface for most of the game and that his team must get a score on the board to create some pressure in the last innings for Sri Lanka. "We would like to increase the run rate and get a bowl at Sri Lanka at some point tomorrow. We have some hard work to do and make a move from there," he said. Hashn Tillakaratne on his first day as captain in a home Test, said that it was not a bad day for his team except that they dropped a few catches which enabled New Zealand to their total. "The pitch is still a good batting track and we need to take the catches. We didn't do that in the second session. I was disappointed a little bit with the fielding but I am sure we will do a good job tomorrow. We will definitely bounce back tomorrow and get them out as early as possible," he said. NEW ZEALAND - 1ST INNINGS M.H. Richardson b Vaas 85 M.J. Horne c Dharmasena b Nissanka 4 S.P. Fleming not out 112 M.S. Sinclair not out 4 Extras (NB-1, W-1) 2 TOTAL (2 wkts at close, 93 overs, 362 mins) 207 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-20 (Horne), 2-192 (Richardson). TO BAT: S.B. Styris, J.D.P. Oram, R.G. Hart, D.L. Vettori, P.J. Wiseman, D.R. Tuffey, S.D. Bond. BOWLING: Vaas 18-5-44-1, Nissanka 14-7-21-1, Dharmasena 22-6-46-0, Muralitharan 27-10-48-0, Lokuarachchi 9-2-35-0, Jayasuriya 3-0-13-0. SRI LANKA: M.S. Atapattu, S.T. Jayasuriya, K.C. Sangakkara, D.P.M. Jayawardene, R.S. Kaluwitharana, H.D.P.K. Dharmasena, W.P.U.J.C. Vaas, K. Lokuarachchi, P.N.B. Nissanka, M. Muralitharan. |
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