The Sri Lankans had a disappointing second day on the boxing day Test against New Zealand at Christchurch. The Lankans were bundled out at the score of 138 runs in the first innings and follow on was being enforced upon them. In the second innings though, they have made a firm comeback and came back quite much strongly.
On this note, the legendary Sri Lankan batsman, Mahela Jayawardene expressed his disappointment at Sri Lanka’s poor display of batting today. The recently retired batsman of Sri Lanka thinks that the way the Lankans surrendered in the first innings shall be considered as an anomaly. He believes that the Lankans should have performed much better than what they performed today.
In the first innings, no batsmen of the Sri Lankan line up did manage to provide a fight to the kiwi bowlers except the skipper, Angelo Mathews. Mathews scored a half century but he was even dismissed at the score of 50 runs.
At stumps of the second day, the Sri Lankans seemed to have put some fight back as they were poised at 84 runs without losing a single wicket in the second innings. The Lankans still trail the New Zealand score by a margin of 219 runs. The primary goal of the Lankans should be now to get that 219 runs and avoid innings defeat.
Sri Lankan opener, Dimuth Karuanratne is batting on 49 at stumps of the second day.
Jayawardene is also hopeful of the fact that Sri Lanka does possess the chances to bounce back in the game. They have already got a good start to the second innings. They need to capitalize on that further and get the scorecard moving along.
Also, the experienced pro of the Sri Lankan line up, Kumar Sangakkara need to come strong in the second innings to get the Lankans into some sort of respectable position.
Here is what Jayawardene tweeted:
Disappointed with the effort on the 1st innings. We are better than that. Good start to the 2nd innings. Need to build on the good start.