Kiwis conquer Lankan spin

COLOMBO: Skipper Stephen Fleming slammed a century yesterday as New Zealand overcame their fear of Sri Lanka’s spinners on the opening day of the first cricket Test at Colombo’s Saravannamuttu Stadium.

Fleming posted an unbeaten 112, his fifth century in 74 Tests, and shared a record 172-run stand with opener Mark Richardson to lift New Zealand to 207 for two at stumps. The Fleming-Richardson partnership, which thwarted Sri Lankan spinners for four and a half hours, eclipsed New Zealand’s previous best mark of 141 for the second wicket set six years ago by Matthew Horne and Bryan Young.

Enduring a painful hamstring that forced him to bat with a runner for most of his innings, Richardson thwarted the Sri Lankan spinners but fell for 85 to Chaminda Vaas’ first delivery with the second new ball. Fleming, who accumulated 359 runs during New Zealand’s last Test series here in 1998, issued a reminder to the Sri Lankan bowlers, who were banking on a spin-assisting wicket to trouble the Black Caps. “We did well to reach a position from where we can aspire to put pressure on Sri Lanka,” said Fleming.  “It was an important toss to win and I think we batted quite well.  Even though the scoring was a bit slow, we’ll be looking to accelerate tomorrow.”

New Zealand lost opener Horne for four to debutante seam bowler Prabath Nissanka, who joined the lineup in place of injured pacer Dilhara Fernando. But the left-handed duo of Richardson and Fleming adopted stonewalling tactics to defy the four-pronged spin attack. Both batsmen benefited from poor slip fielding by the Sri Lankans, who allowed one edged shot by either batsman off ace offspinner Muttiah Muralitharan to sail through the cordon. Given a life by first slip Kumar Sangakkara off Muralitharan when on 10, Fleming struck 14 boundaries in his unconquered 362-minute knock off 317 deliveries.

Richardson was put down by lone slip Mahela Jayawardena when on 34 and later saw wicketkeeper Romesh Kaluwitharana spill an edged shot off Muralitharan when on 65. This was his 14th half-century in 23 Tests, but he seemed to be exhausted by the extremely humid conditions when he was bowled by left-arm pacer Vass an half hour before the draw of stumps. Matthew Sinclair, who joined Fleming at the fall of Richardson, was batting on four at the close of play. Tillakaratne blamed his team’s poor catching for letting New Zealand call the shots on the opening day of the two-match series.