Through the course of an as-of-yet unbroken 109-run partnership, Kusal Mendis quelled New Zealand’s short-pitched bowling, flayed the fuller balls, moved to 65, and generally made resistance batting appear a breeze. At the other end, Angelo Mathews looked like he was in a dogfight – wearing balls on the body, having his edge repeatedly beaten, yet defending as resolutely as he could through the course of the session. He went to lunch on 35 off 91 balls.
Sri Lanka are still a mammoth 174 runs in the red, but in batting out a wicketless session, Mendis and Mathews have suggested the match is not lost yet. Neil Wagner’s bouncers were visibly less threatening on a slowing pitch – Mendis pulling and hooking comfortably through the morning, before Mathews hit a couple of boundaries to square leg in the half hour. And when neither Tim Southee nor Trent Boult can get the ball to jag off the pitch, it means there really is no seam movement to be had now.
Mendis had endured nervous moments the previous evening, but appeared almost immediately comfortable at the crease on day four, driving Tim Southee serenely down the ground in the second over, while he began pricking the tight ring field to find fuss-free singles and twos. It was the fours he hit off Wagner that suggested he was in truly good touch. In the seventh over of the day, he whipped the bowler nonchalantly through mid-on, before hitting three boundaries in the space of four Wagner deliveries a few overs later. New Zealand had piled men into the legside, and had Wagner bowling at the ribs, from around the wicket. Mendis crashed several of those bouncers for four, though, and at no stage did he appear uncomfortable.
The same could not have been said about Mathews, who was incredibly reluctant to take on New Zealand’s bouncers (Southee began to bowl them early in the day as well), perhaps because he has been dismissed by short-pitched bowling in each of his three most recent innings. Where Mendis looked for reasons to hit the ball, and set about briskly advancing the score, Mathews was content to withdraw. He ducked, he weaved, he blocked, and occasionally, when he had got himself into a bad position against a short ball, he just dropped his bat and allowed the ball to hit him.
It was not until his 44th ball that he moved into double figures, and he had not hit a single boundary after 75 balls at the crease. Then, all of a sudden, with lunch approaching, he unleashed a brief flurry – three fours off Wagner in four deliveries, two of those the result of commanding pull shots.
New Zealand rifled through their bowlers in their efforts to break this stand, with Colin de Grandhomme sending down seven overs in the second hour of the day, before left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel was deployed in the final 20 minutes of the session.
Mendis and Mathews, though, were secure. There were no close calls, really; just good batting on a flat pitch – something they will need much more of if they are to make something out of this game.