A century by Tom Latham (121*) and a half-century by captain Kane Williamson (91) were the highlights for New Zealand on the second day of the first Test against Sri Lanka in Wellington.
On a good batting day, where the New Zealand run rate hovered around four runs per over for the most part, Williamson and Latham thwarted the inexperienced Sri Lankan bowling to give New Zealand a vital first-innings lead as they finished on 311/2, leading Sri Lanka by 29 runs on Sunday, 16 December.
With a fair total on the board, Sri Lanka aimed to make inroads with the new ball but Jeet Raval and Latham added 59 runs for the first wicket in 23 overs and negated the threat. Raval was dismissed right at the stroke of lunch, caught by Niroshan Dickwella off Kumara.
That was when Williamson and Latham got together and put up the highest partnership of the day, batting for the whole of second session and adding 162 runs for the second wicket. Williamson, the captain, was particularly aggressive, racing away to his 50 off just 45 balls with six boundaries.
Latham was cautious, playing the perfect foil to Williamson, as he too brought up his half-century off 123 balls with six boundaries. The 100-run partnership came off just 129 balls and the 150 off 201 as at one stage New Zealand were cruising at 200/1.
Sri Lanka finally got a breakthrough in the 60th over when Kasun Rajitha caught Williamson off Dhananajaya de Silva for 91 as the New Zealand captain fell tantalisingly short of a century. He played 93 balls and hit 10 boundaries.
That brought Ross Taylor (50*) to the crease and the experienced batsman combined with Latham to take New Zealand past 250 as the latter approached his century. The run rate did slow down a bit after Williamson’s departure, but the occasional boundaries kept coming and the batsmen were mostly untroubled.
Latham’s seventh Test hundred came in a rush: he pushed a ball to cover for a quick single when on 98 and barely made it to the other end, but overthrows meant he could come back for two and complete his ton. He brought up the milestone off 219 balls with eight fours.
New Zealand went into the lead in the 78th over. The new ball, taken after the 80th, brought another flurry of boundaries. Taylor slapped one through the covers in the 81st and Latham got two more off Rajitha in the next as New Zealand crossed 300.
In the process, Taylor also went past Brendon McCullum’s 6453 runs to become the second-most prolific scorer for New Zealand in Tests with only Stephen Fleming ahead of him. He also brought up his 50 off 83 balls with five boundaries towards the end of the day.
Together, Taylor and Latham put up an unbeaten 90-run stand for the third wicket. The Sri Lankan bowlers struggled as all of them, except Lakmal and Mathews, who bowled just four overs, conceded in excess of 3.5 runs per over.
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