Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014 N Zealand eye big total McCullum, Williamson slam tons

AUCKLAND: Captain Brendon McCullum and in his field placings, pushing fielders deeper and Kane Williamson scored centuries to resurrect New wider, which allowed New Zealand to keep the Zealand’s innings after they lost three early scoreboard ticking over with easy singles. to put them in a strong position on 329 for four at the end of the first day of the first Test at Eden Park PERSONAL RACE yesterday. McCullum was 143 at the close They appeared to be in a personal race after of play, his eighth test , while Williamson tea to reach their century first with virtually identi- was dismissed after tea for 113, his fifth test hun- cal strike rates before McCullum pulled away in the dred. Williamson’s century was his sixth score over 90s and belted the first six of his innings to bring 50 in succession against the tourists, having scored up the milestone off 135 balls. a half century in each of the five one day interna- Williamson accumulated through the 90s tionals that preceded the two-match test series. before he punched Ravindra Jadeja through extra The pair combined for a 221-run partnership after cover for two runs to bring up his century and con- the hosts had been reduced to 30 for three early in tinue a golden run of form. The right-hander has the first session when India captain Mahendra scored 817 runs at an average of 54.46 in the 10 Singh Dhoni had won his sixth successive toss on test matches in the past 12 months with two cen- tour and put New Zealand into bat. All-rounder turies and seven half centuries. Corey Anderson (42) was with McCullum at the He was eventually dismissed when he glanced close of play with Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan an innocuous Zaheer delivery to Dhoni down the taking two wickets each. “It was pretty tricky early leg side before McCullum and Anderson put on an on for the openers so to get through that period unbroken 78-run partnership with the hosts look- and kick on in partnership with Brendon was fan- ing well set to push on to a first innings total in tastic,” Williamson told RadioSport. excess of 400 today. “It’s an outstanding position, “It’s nice to put the score on the board ... but we just have to make sure that we push on,” the most pleasing thing was getting the innings McCullum told Sky Television. “Kane was brilliant back on track. “It’s a very good batting track so we today, he’s such a mature guy for someone so need to keep batting ... and make sure that we young. He was outstanding to bat with and took a have a really good innings to bowl at.” lot of pressure off me.” — Reuters

EARLY BREAKTHROUGHS CHITTAGONG: Bangladesh’s Shamsur Rahman celebrates after scoring a century on the third Dhoni’s three-pronged pace attack of Scoreboard day of the second match against Sri Lanka. — AP Mohammed Shami, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma exploited the green drop-in pitch and AUCKLAND: Scoreboard at the close of play cool, overcast conditions to knock the top off New on the first day of the first test between New Rahman and Kayes lead Zealand’s batting and expose their middle order Zealand and India at Eden Park in Auckland before the break. yesterday. B’desh revival with tons Sharma had Hamish Rutherford well caught by India won the toss and chose to bowl a diving Ajinkya Rahane in the gully for six then CHITTAGONG: Shamsur Rahman and Imrul dug in on the sluggish pitch where the ball tend- Zaheer trapped Peter Fulton in front for 13 before New Zealand first innings Kayes hit maiden centuries as Bangladesh found ed to keep low at times. Rahman and Kayes bat- Sharma had Ross Taylor caught by Ravindra Jadeja P. Fulton lbw b Zaheer 13 batting form to avoid the follow-on in the second ted through the morning session to take the for three. Taylor’s dismissal put the hosts in a spot H. Rutherford c Rahane b Sharma 6 and final Test against Sri Lanka in Chittagong yes- overnight score of 86-1 to 201 without further of bother before Williamson and McCullum con- K. Williamson c Dhoni b Zaheer 113 terday. The hosts, facing a monumental Sri loss by lunch. Rahman reached his hundred soon solidated, adding another 24 runs before lunch. R. Taylor c Jadeja b Sharma 3 Lankan first innings total of 587, fought splendid- after lunch by driving Sri Lankan captain Angelo India’s bowlers were unable to sustain their B. McCullum not out 143 ly to reach 409-8 by stumps on the third day at Mathews through the covers for a boundary. disciplined line and length after lunch and were C. Anderson not out 42 the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium. It was a Kayes was lucky to reach the three-figure punished for bowling too short or too full, while Extras: (w-3, lb-5, b-1) 9 remarkable comeback by the bottom-placed Test mark after surviving two chances in one over their fielding, especially catching, was sub-stan- Total (for four wickets, 90 overs) 329 side, who had been thrashed by an innings and from Mendis when on 95. The first time he was dard. The New Zealand pair seized on the incon- Fall of wickets: 1-19 2-23 3-30 4-251 248 runs in the first Test in Dhaka last week-suf- dropped by Kithuruwan Vithanage at point, but sistency and while the 23-year-old Williamson was Still to bat: BJ Watling, Ish Sodhi, Tim fering their 14th defeat in 15 matches against Sri when the same fielder took a catch three balls lat- dropped on 32 by Murali Vijay at first slip off Shami Southee, Neil Wagner, Trent Boult. Lanka with one draw. But the loss of four bats- er, the umpire declared a no-ball. — AFP shortly after lunch, their counter-attacking style Bowling (to date): Shami 22-6-66-0, Zaheer men in the final session after being 319-4 at one wore down the threadbare Indian attack. 23-2-98-2 (w-1), I. Sharma 21-4-62-2 (w-2), stage, meant Bangladesh still trail by 178 runs The pair scored 125 runs in 27 overs in the Jadeja 20-1-81-0, Kholi 1-0-4-0, R. Sharma 3- with just two wickets in hand. Rahman and Kayes, middle session as Dhoni became more defensive 0-12-0 who came together when Tamim Iqbal was dis- Scoreboard missed without a run on the board on CHITTAGONG: Scoreboard at the close of Wednesday afternoon, put on Bangladesh’s high- play on the third day of the second and final est second- stand of 232. Test between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka yes- Rahman scored 106 in only his second Test terday. and left-handed Kayes celebrated his return to Sri Lanka won the toss and opted to bat the Test side after two years with 115 to lift Bangladesh to 232-1 soon after lunch. Sri Lanka first innings 587 The duo surpassed their side’s previous best partnership for the second wicket of 200 by Bangladesh first innings (overnight 86-1) Tamim Iqbal and Junaid Siddiqui against India in Tamim Iqbal b Lakmal 0 Dhaka in 2010, but they gave away their wickets Shamsur Rahman b Mendis 106 with rash strokes. Unorthodox spinner Ajantha Imrul Kayes b Mendis 115 Mendis bowled both batsmen and Kayes had to Mominul Haque lbw b Perera 13 be taken off the field on a stretcher after pulling a Shakib Al Hasan c Karunaratne b Perera 50 hamstring as he stepped out to loft the ball. Mushfiqur Rahim c Silva b Perera 20 Sri Lanka sliced through the middle order Nasir Hossain c Chandimal b Mendis 42 before Shakib Al Hasan retrieved the situation Mahmudullah not out 30 with a half-century and Nasir Hossain chipped in Sohag Gazi lbw b Mendis 0 with 42. Mendis dismissed Nasir and Sohag Gazi Al-Amin Hossain not out 3 off successive deliveries, but Al-Amin Hossain Extras (b-8, lb-1, nb-21) 30 prevented a hat-trick by defending the next ball. Total (eight wickets; 115 overs) 409 At the close, Mohammad Mahmudullah was Still to bat: Abdur Razzak unbeaten on 30 and Al-Amin was on three. Fall of wickets: 1-0 2-232 3-252 4-259 5-319 6- Seamer Nuwan Pradeep conceded 13 no-balls in 350 7-396 8-396 figures of 0-96 from just 15 overs. Mendis took 4- Bowling (to date): Lakmal 23-5-68-1, Pradeep 84 and off-spinner Dilruwan Perera claimed 3- 15-2-96-0 (nb-13), Mendis 27-2-84-4 (nb-8), AUCKLAND: New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum bats in front of India’s wicketkeeper MS Dhoni 119. Bangladesh, perhaps inspired by Kumar Perera 39-4-119-3, Mathews 11-1-33-0. on the first day of the first cricket Test at Eden Park. — AP Sangakkara’s triple-century on the second day,