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By Sa'adi Thawfeeq

The first cricket Test of a short series of two-Tests trudged it's way towards an inevitable draw at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium, a result which seemed likely from day four after Sri Lanka had avoided the follow-on mark of 316 and the evening rains had robbed valuable playing time on three of the five days.

Ironically, yesterday the fifth and final day was rain-free and allowed a full day's play of 105 overs. But after 94 overs, the two captains decided that enough is enough and the game thankfully came to an end.

New Zealand with a 32-run first innings lead, finished their second innings on 161 for five wickets when stumps were finally drawn.

Skipper Stephen Fleming followed his stupendous first innings effort of 274 not out with another typical innings finishing on an unbeaten 69 to take his match aggregate to 343, a new New Zealand record beating Martin Crowe's aggregate of 329 (30 and 299) against Sri Lanka at Wellington in 1990-91. He was on the field for all but 44 minutes of the Test - 956 minutes while batting and 654 minutes while fielding. In the second innings yesterday, he batted for 303 minutes, faced 234 balls and hit only five fours.

His first innings 274 not out was the highest by an overseas player in a Test in Sri Lanka beating West Indian Brian Lara's 220 at the SSC in 2001-02.

Fleming said that he was not aware that he had surpassed Crowe's record until he returned to the pavilion.

"It doesn't mean a lot to me although it is nice to have two innings of substance in a game," said Fleming.

"Martin Crowe is our greatest player. I don't think technique-wise I will be as good as him but I would love to manufacture a record that is similar to his. It is nice to go past him and contribute a huge number of runs in one game. It makes up for some one's where I have missed out," he said.

Fleming said that he thought at one time New Zealand were in a position they could lose. "I was very nervous to do it again today," he said.

Fleming who batted for some time with the aid of a runner before tea said: "I have got a sore bottom from stretching to hit the ball through the covers. I will be icing it tonight to get it ready for the next Test.

Thankfully, the Neurofen did the trick today".

Sri Lanka's spinners struck it rich on the final day capturing all five wickets to fall in the New Zealand second innings. Leg-spinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi took his first Test wicket when he trapped Matt Horne lbw for 42 to end a first wicket stand of 71, and then also dismissed Styris similarly for 16 to finish with figures of 2 for 47 off 19 overs. He was given a long bowl in the afternoon session.

Muttiah Muralitharan captured the other three wickets to end with figures of three for 41 off 30 overs, but any winning result to the game had gone by then with so much of time lost to rain and the pitch still good for batting. Sri Lanka's last four wickets lasted for just over an hour, 66 minutes. The departure of Tillakaratne 25 minutes into the final morning, brought forth a swift end to the Sri Lankan innings. Tillakaratne who had batted for 433 minutes was eventually out as he played on to a delivery from Shane Bond trying to work the ball to third man. He made 144 off 314 balls hitting 24 fours.

Kumar Dharmasena helped his captain raise 70 for the seventh wicket in 123 minutes. Sri Lanka were not prepared to give up easily as Test debutant Lokuarachchi joined Dharmasena to further frustrate the Kiwis in an eighth wicket partnership that realised 39 runs in 34 minutes.

Lokuarachchchi may have disappointed as a leg-spin bowler but he gave an insight to his batting talents when he clobbered an unbeaten 28 off 29 balls which included a six and three fours.

Off-spinner Wiseman was at the receiving end being hit for 15 runs which included a six and two fours.

Left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori wicketless for 32 overs suddenly picked up three in five balls in his 33rd to bring a speedy end to the innings.

All three victims fell lbw and Vettori narrowly missed out on a hat-trick when he dismissed Kumar Dharmasena and Prabath Nissanka off successive balls. Muralitharan however survived the hat-trick ball but was out without scoring to the third ball.

Dharmasena batted 158 minutes for his 31 which comprised three fours and fulfilled the role he was picked for at no. 6. (although he batted one notch down the order because of Vaas going up as nightwatchman).

"We still had a good crack at bowling out Sri Lanka. We wanted to be positive and keep the game open although we could have batted them out of it. In the end the wicket was just too good," said Fleming.

Both teams move to Kandy for the second and final Test starting on May 3.

NEW ZEALAND - 1ST INNINGS 515-7 decl.
(S.P. Fleming 274 n.o., M.H. Richardson 85, S.B. Styris 63)

SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS
(Overnight 424-6)
M.S. Atapattu lbw b Tuffey			0
S.T. Jayasuriya b Bond 			50
W.P.U.J.C. Vaas c Fleming b Bond 		4
K.C. Sangakkara c Oram b Wiseman 		67
D.P.M. Jayawardene c Hart b Oram 		58
H.P. Tillakaratne b Bond 			144
R.S. Kaluwitharana c Sinclair b Wiseman 	76
H.D.P.K. Dharmasena lbw b Vettori 		31
K.H. Lokuarachchi not out 			28
R.A.P. Nissanka lbw b Vettori 		0
M. Muralitharan lbw b Vettori 		0
Extras (lb-21, nb-4) 			25

TOTAL (all out, 152 overs, 654 mins) 		483

FALL OF WICKETS: 
1-0 (Atapattu), 2-11(Vaas), 3-114(Jayasuriya), 4-134(Sangakkara),
5-267 (Jayawardene), 6-374 (Kaluwitharana), 7-444 (Tillakaratne), 
8-483 (Dharmasena), 9-483 (Nissanka), 10-483 (Muralitharan).
BOWLING:
Tuffey 17-5-54-1(2nb), Bond 28-6-97-3(1nb), Vettori 33-8-94-3,
Oram 30-13-62-1(1nb),  Wiseman 41-13-127-2, Styris 3-0-28-0.

NEW ZEALAND - 2ND INNINGS

M.J. Horne lbw b Lokuarachchi 		42
S.P. Fleming not out 			69
M.S. Sinclair c sub (Dilshan) b Muralitharan	1
S.B. Styris lbw b Lokuarachchi		16
J.D.P. Oram c Kaluwitharana b Muralitharan	19
R.G. Hart c Sangakkara b Muralitharan		0
M.H. Richardson not out			6
Extras (b-1, lb-6, nb-1)			8
TOTAL (5 wkts at stumps, 78 overs, 303 mins)	161

FALL OF WICKETS: 
1-71 (Horne), 2-76 (Sinclair), 3-108 (Styris), 4-133 (Oram), 
5-133 (Hart).
BOWLING: 
Vaas 7-2-27-0, Nissanka 6-1-18-0, Muralitharan 30-15-41-3(1nb), 
Lokuarachchi 19-2-47-2, Dharmasena 16-7-21-0.
    

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