Sri Lanka 282 and 287 for 3 (Kusal Mendis 141*, Mathews 120*) trail New Zealand 578 (Latham 264*) by 9 runs
They had less than half a session to see out following a rain-enforced 90-minute delay, but Kusal Mendis and Angelo Mathews stayed firm at the crease, largely unbothered by Tim Southee and Trent Boult’s fuller lengths, and even less troubled by the shorter stuff, which they have negotiated with supreme confidence right through their partnership.
Only 12 overs were possible in the session, before rains returned to wash out the final seven minutes of play. In that time Mendis struck four boundaries – two of them sublime straight drives – and moved to 141 not out. Mathews, who seemed intent on remaining in stonewall mode, added only three runs to his overnight score, and went to lunch on 120. The partnership is now worth 274, and Sri Lanka are only nine runs in arrears, which means that if the rain does eventually ease up, New Zealand will almost certainly need to bat if they’re to win the game.
Given the rainy afternoon forecast, and the ease with which these two batsmen negotiated that mini-session, though, a draw now seems the likeliest outcome.
There were very minor scares for each batsman. Mathews was pointedly beaten outside his off stump by a good-length Boult delivery that curved away slightly before pitching. Mendis was close to gloving a waist-high Southee short ball down the legside. But so de-fanged is this surface now, that the bowlers barely had the opportunity to capitalise on those slight errors. Almost immediately, the ball began finding the middle of the bat again, and normal service had resumed.
The most exciting exciting period of the morning came when Mendis hit 19 runs in the space of seven deliveries, hitting two fours apiece off both Boult and Southee – a period that featured those two straight drives, in addition to a glorious pull to the square leg fence. That flurry of scoring prompted Kane Williamson to bring Neil Wagner and Ajaz Patel into the attack, but although a couple of maidens followed, Mendis and Mathews were not in any visible trouble.