Galle: Rangana Herath exposed New Zealand’s weakness against spin with a six-wicket haul as Sri Lanka raced to an emphatic 10-wicket win on the third day of the opening Test here on Monday.
The left-arm spinner finished with 6-43 off 18 overs as New Zealand, trailing by 26 runs, crashed to 118 in their second innings after losing their last nine wickets for 83.
Sri Lanka effortlessly chased down a 93-run target, with debutant Dimuth Karunaratne remaining unbeaten on 60 and Tharanga Paranavitana 31 not out.
Herath finished the Test with 11-108, his second haul of 10 or more wickets in a match.
It was New Zealand’s fifth successive Test defeat this year after they lost two matches each in the West Indies and India.
The Test was evenly poised at stumps on Sunday when New Zealand were nine runs ahead with as many wickets in hand, but Herath swung the match in his team’s favour with four quick wickets in the morning.
Herath was supported by paceman Nuwan Kulasekara and off-spinner Suraj Randiv, who bagged two wickets apiece. (AFP)
Brief scores:
NZ 1st inn: 221 all out
SL 1st inn: 247 all out
NZ 2nd inn: 118 all out (D Flynn 20; R Herath 6-43, N Kulasekara 2-28)
SL 2nd inn: 93-0 (D Karunaratne 60 not out, T Paranavitana 31 not out)
