SL in NZ: SL’s batting coach predicts target

Sri Lanka, having finished day 03 in a spot of bother with three down for 83, will have to rack up a score of 275-300 to give their hosts New Zealand a run for their money, their batting coach, Naveed Nawaz, said.

Tourists, who are in a now-or-never situation to win the ongoing opening test to have any hopes alive of reaching the World Test Championship Finals, finished Saturday in New Zealand losing their top-order. They now have veteran Angelo Mathews on 20, and night-watchman Prabath Jayasuriya on 2.

“It’s still a good wicket to bat. Gives a little bit to the fast-bowlers on day 03. So I suppose, anything above 275-300 will be a good score,” Nawaz told reporters at the end of day 03.

“I think it is going to be an interesting game. It was swinging both the ways and New Zealanders played the second session really and got the game back into their control. And looks like it is going to be an interesting game tomorrow”.

“I think it’s the last 25-overs of the game, where the Daryl Mitchell and Matt Henry partnership took the game away from us. At one point it looked as a 50-run lead for us. But the last partnership (Mitchell, Henry and Neil Wagner) swung the game back into their favour”.

Speaking on a crucial day four, he said, “I think it’s going to be important. I think we lost one wicket too many today. It would’ve been ideal if Kusal (Mendis) hung in there for the last bit of innings. We coming in tomorrow with two wickets down would have been really great for us. But unfortunately, we lost Kusal in the latter part of the evening. We need to back our batter to go in there, get some big runs to swing the big game back into our side.”

Touching on the role their spinner Prabath Jayasuriya holds, “Second innings would be very interesting, although ball won’t take a lot of spin on the wicket. But if you take a look at our bowling list, all three of our fast bowlers have bowled 25+ overs. So i think Prabath Jayasuriya will have come into play, close one end up and keep runs tight. He’ll have to bowl much more than what he did in the first innings".