CRICKET: Sri Lanka celebrate

CRICKET

Sri Lanka 233 and 411

New Zealand 307 and 0-0.

Match drawn

Sri Lanka won their first overseas Test series by holding New Zealand to a draw in the second Test at Dunedin, which ended yesterday.

Sri Lanka won the two-Test series by virtue of their victory in Napier last week, their first Test victory in 18 overseas tours since 1982.

New Zealand only had an outside chance of forcing a result when Sri Lanka resumed at 210 for 3 yesterday, but their hopes evaporated against the determined batting of Asanka Gurusinha and Hashan Tillekaratne.

The two left-handers, who had joined forces with their side in trouble on 81 for 3 the previous evening, were not separated until shortly before lunch when Tillekaratne went for 108, his second Test century. The pair put on 192 for the fourth wicket, a new Sri Lankan record, beating the previous best of 178 shared by Arjuna Ranatunga and Aravinda de Silva in Wellington four years ago. Gurusinha went on to reach 128, his sixth Test century.

(Fifth day: New Zealand won toss)

SRI LANKA - First Innings 233 (C Vaas 51).

NEW ZEALAND - First Innings 307 (B A Young 84, S P Fleming 66; U C J Vaas 6-87).

SRI LANKA - Second Innings

(Overnight: 210 for 3)

A P Gurusinha b Su'a 128

H P Tillekaratne c Murray b Patel 108

*A Ranatunga c Parore b Larsen 90

C I Dunasinghe c Fleming b Patel 11

U C J Vaas c Parore b Walmsley 3

G P Wickramasinghe c Parore b Walmsley 9

M Muralitharan run out 7

K R Pushpakumara not out 1

Extras (b6 lb5 nb3) 14

Total 411

Fall (cont): 4-273 5-295 6-344 7-355 8-377 9-405.

Bowling: Walmsley 38-8-121-2 (1nb); Patel 57-20-96-4; Su'a 26-3-97-2 (2nb); Pringle 22-8-55-0; Larsen 25.4-14-31-1

NEW ZEALAND - Second Innings

B A Young not out 0

D L Murray not out 0

Extras 0

Total (0.1 overs) 0

Bowling: Vaas 0.1-0-0-0.

Man of the match: Chaminda Vaas.