Kamindu Mendis struck an incredible 135* to record his sixth Test century in just 13 innings as Sri Lanka continue to dominate New Zealand on day 2 of the second Test in Galle.
Kusal Mendis, who reached his 20th Test half-century, also sparkled with an outstanding 70*. In the afternoon session, the two Mendis batters joined to contribute a vital 117-run partnership, which strengthened Sri Lanka’s position in the match.
After lunch, Sri Lanka solidified their already firm hold on the Test as Kusal Mendis hit his 20th half-century and Kamindu Mendis finished his fifth Test century in his 13th innings, together amassing 117 points for the match.
Now that Sri Lanka has lost as many wickets in as many sessions, the stats are becoming astronomical. With more batting left for Sri Lanka, the total stands at 519 for 5. In the afternoon, the ground started to react to the spinners. In their innings, which has previously included a 97-run and a 74-run collaboration, the all-Mendis partnership is the third partnership of 100 runs or more. The second centurion of the innings is Kamindu, who came in after Chandimal, who scored 116, primarily on day one.
The bowling statistics for New Zealand have suffered greatly. While Mitchell Santner has been the tightest bowler for New Zealand, he has also given up a wicketless 82, Ajaz Patel has surrendered 135 without taking a wicket. They have eleven overs remaining to claim a third new ball.
During the afternoon session, Kamindu had the sole genuine opportunity when Ajaz beat him in the flight and he managed to run past the delivery with a fast turn. But Kamindu was relieved on 112. Tom Blundell, who has had a mediocre series behind the wickets, failed to get glove to the ball. When he was on 105, they had also examined an appeal for leg before wicket against him; nevertheless, the ball was projected to turn down the leg side. On 113, he was also ruled out caught behind, but the review spared him since the ball had brushed pad rather than bat.
After lunch the bowling had been stingy, with Kusal in particular failing to get many boundaries away. At one point, he had scored one four and was 19 off 60 balls. Santner and Glenn Phillips were particularly frugal, and Ravindra bowled some clean overs. But Sri Lanka appeared to be planning to pursue Ajaz a little more aggressively than normal, and Kamindu in particular frequently approached Ajaz on the track.
They smashed Ajaz for sixes three times in this session. Kamindu hit the first six over long on, and Kusal then hit two over deep midwicket.
Having completed 957 Test runs, Kamindu headed to tea. In terms of number of innings played, he will become the fastest batsman to 1000 Test runs since 1950 if he scores 43 more runs in this innings.
Phillips made the biggest alterations during the morning session, getting one to bounce off Angelo Mathews, who edged a sweep to short fine leg and was out for 88. In the last over before lunch, Blundell collected a top edge that Phillips had hit, this time off Dhananjaya de Silva, and followed it to short leg.
Kamindu started the day at 51 and made good improvement, reaching 93 at halftime. As usual, he kept his celebrations to himself when he reached his centennial early in the afternoon.