N Thushara to Will Young, 1 run, full and at the stumps, punched straight to mid-on and Young scampers across for a quick single
1.2
N Thushara to Tim Robinson, 1 run, fuller length delivery on the leg-stump line, nudged in front of mid-on for a quick single
1.1
N Thushara to Will Young, 1 run, to cover point
Nuwan Thushara, right-arm fast medium, comes into the attack
One slip for Thushara
0.6
Theekshana to Will Young, 1 run, full and drifting into the right-hander, flicked into the gap wide of mid-on for a single
0.5
Theekshana to Will Young, 2 runs, flighted delivery on middle and leg, clipped into the gap wide of mid-wicket and Young comes back for the second
The slip has been removed
0.4
Theekshana to Will Young, FOUR, to long-off
0.3
Theekshana to Will Young, no run, flighted delivery on off, Young makes room and pushes it to cover-point
0.2
Theekshana to Will Young, leg byes, FOUR
shout for LBW, but there might've been an inside edge, but Sri Lanka have reviewed
0.1
Theekshana to Tim Robinson, 1 run, flatter delivery on off, spins back into the right-hander who backs away and drives it to long-on for a single
Tim Robinson and Will Young are at the crease. Tim Robinson is on strike. Theekshana will open the attack
The players are out for the national anthems - New Zealand's first and then followed by Sri Lanka
Charith Asalanka - I would have batted first as well, but we can't control the toss. We've got to do the basics right, which is what we're doing pretty nicely at the moment. We have got 3 spinners, two fast bowlers and two all-rounders playing today.
[b] Mitchell Santner[/b] - We will bat first. Looks like a good surface, might be slightly on the slower side, no rain forecast and we'll look to set a score. It's an exciting young side with a lot of white-ball cricket coming up, they are very good at home and we're excited to play against them. It was a crazy series, great to be part of, winning all three Tests was great, back to Sri Lanka and hoping for a great series.
This pitch was used on the 17th of October when Sri Lanka took on West Indies. The pitch looks hard, runs on offer in the batting powerplay and then the spinners will come into play. 165 is the par score here and anything around that score should be competitive, reckons Farveez Maharoof, in his pitch report
Teams:
New Zealand (Playing XI): Tim Robinson, Will Young, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips, Michael Bracewell, Mitch Hay(w), Josh Clarkson, Mitchell Santner(c), Ish Sodhi, Zakary Foulkes, Jacob Duffy