By Dhammika Ratnaweera
Resuming at the overnight score of 227/7 in 80.0 overs with Niroshan Dickwella on 39 and Suranga Lakmal on 28, the pair added only a 15 runs but their partnership of 80 runs help boost Sri Lanka’s innings to reach a total of 267 with a lead of 18 runs in the first innings.
The top scorer for the team was Niroshan Dickwella, who initially enjoyed a permanent position in all three formats of the game, but then was deprived to represent Sri Lanka in the ODI world cup. He made a fine knock of 61 runs rotating the strike with the tail-enders.
Speaking after the match, Sri Lanka’s wicket-keeper batsman Niroshan Dickwella said that he was very happy to see some runs on the board as he was determined to make his presence felt in the national team in his comeback effort. “We have a tough day tomorrow on the fourth day of the test in Galle, with New Zealand already got a 177 run lead, we need to get them out as soon as possible because anything over 230 mark would be difficult to chase,” said Dickwella.
“It was unfortunate that Suranga got out soon as we wanted to play a long innings to add more runs to take a good lead” added Dickwella saying that it was not easy for his to protect the other end batters in their recovery effort.
Dickwella, after being dropped from the World Cup squad had spent his time for a refresher training period and came back strongly against India A team with a century and finishing as the top scorer of the tour. “It was sad to lose out from the World Cup squad, but I used that time to take a rest and then made use the best of the time to train myself on some techniques and physical training in gyms to improve my fitness levels” said Dickwella.
“My aim was to come back to the team soon and score big runs to show my presence felt. I am happy for this knock today and I want to continue this form with some hard work on it” elaborated Dickwella.
He said that Sri Lanka has a good chance of winning this match in Galle and that he is sure that their batting line-up is capable of chasing a score even around 300 runs.
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