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New Zealand skipper Tim Southee surpassed the wicket tally of his countrymen Daniel Vettori during the first Test between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in Christchurch on Thursday.
The right-arm paceman is now on 364 wickets whereas former left-arm spinner Vettori picked up 361 wickets in his career. The 34-year-old ended up with a five-wicket haul in the first innings of the Test match.
Tim Southee took 5-64 and Matt Henry 4-80 as New Zealand wrapped up Sri Lanka’s first innings at 355.
Southee completed his 15th five-wicket total in tests with the wicket of Asitha Fernando which ended the Sri Lanka innings about 35 minutes before lunch.
Sri Lanka resumed Friday at 305-6 after an impressive batting display on the first day when they surpassed 300 after being sent in on a greenish pitch at Hagley Oval.
Dhananjaya de Silva, who was 39 not out overnight, started the second day with a superb on-drive for four off the bowling of Blair Tickner. He was out in the second over of the day for 46, caught by wicketkeeper Tom Blundell from Southee’s bowling.
New Zealand took the second new ball as soon as it was available after 80 overs and it was shared by Southee and Henry who shared the last three wickets.
Henry dismissed Kasun Rajitha for 22 and Prabath Jayasuriya for 13. The last-wicket partnership between Lahiru Kumara (13) and Asitha (10) held up New Zealand a little, adding 19 runs before Southee struck again.
Spinner Michael Bracewell was the only other bowler to take a wicket in the innings which again underlined dependence on Southee and Henry, though it took four seamers into this match.
Neil Wagner was expensive, conceding 68 runs from 10 overs, and Tickner gave up 103 runs from 20.
The Hagley Park pitch continues to look good for batting. The pace is reasonable, there is not much movement and bowlers have to work hard to generate steep bounce. Some footprints are beginning to appear which may interest the spinners later in the match.
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