Summary New Zealand made a comfortable start in their reply to Sri Lanka's 292 and were 61-0 at lunch.
HAMILTON (AFP) - New Zealand made a comfortable start in their reply to Sri Lanka s 292 and were 61-0 at lunch on day two of the second cricket Test in Hamilton on Saturday.
Martin Guptill was 39 not out with Tom Latham on 21 as the openers posted their third consecutive half-century stand in the series.
Guptill brought up their 50 partnership by clubbing Angelo Mathews over the rope for six.
Mathews, with his medium pacers, had shared the new ball with Suranga Lakmal and proved economical but not threatening with four maidens and only four runs off his first five overs.
But as Guptill and Latham warmed to their task, his next two overs yielded 16 runs.
The Sri Lankan innings wrapped up early in the second day.
After resuming at 264-7 they lost their last three wickets for 28 runs, with captain Mathews scoring half of them.
Mathews, Sri Lanka s last recognised batsman, brought up his 4,000th Test run when he clipped Tim Southee to midwicket for a single off the second ball he faced.
But after adding 14 runs to reach 77 he was removed by Southee at the start of the seventh over of the morning.
The footwork was missing when he prodded at a delivery moving away and was well caught by Latham diving to his left at third slip.
Lakmal had a short-lived run of luck on four when he fended at a rising delivery from Neil Wagner and the ball deflected on to the base of the stumps without dislodging the bails.
It was the second time in the Test the bails have been rattled but not fallen with Kusal Mendis surviving a Doug Bracewell delivery that nicked the top of the stumps on the first day.
But unlike Mendis, who made a further 12 runs before he was out for 32, Lakmal was gone next ball.
He again poked at a rising Wagner delivery and was taken by Kane Williamson at gully.
Dushmantha Chameera was the last to fall when he drove Bracewell straight to Brendon McCullum at mid-off.
For New Zealand, Southee finished with three for 63 while Bracewell and Trent Boult took two apiece.
