Tillakaratne, Kaluwitharana share honours on rain-affected day

A thunderstorm brought relief on the fourth afternoon of the opening Test: relief from the sweltering heat and also from the dreary cricket, which had reached a stalemate after a dour, unbeaten 11th Test century from Hashan Tillakaratne. As the players fled the field for the safety of the dressing rooms, Sri Lanka were 424 for six.

With thick black clouds piling down from the central highlands, and lightning criss-crossing the skies, the players took an early tea, though the prospect of play later in the day appeared slim. It mattered little. With Sri Lanka just 91 in arrears, the match was drifting towards an inevitable draw.

Tillakaratne had played an uncharacteristically sparky hand on day three, gliding to 71 at the close, and outscoring the normally free-flowing Mahela Jayawardene. However, his determination to save this game, his first since taking over the captaincy, was evident as he crawled along today, finishing unbeaten on 126, having hit 21 fours.

During the morning, Sri Lanka cantered along, powered by a blazing display from Romesh Kaluwitharana, who was returning to Test cricket after two years. Kaluwitharana cracked 76 from just 90 deliveries, hitting 13 boundaries, during a 107-run partnership with Tillakaratne for the sixth wicket.

New Zealand had made the perfect start to the morning, removing Mahela Jayawardene in the first over, after he feathered a leg-cutter from Jacob Oram into the gloves of Robbie Hart behind the stumps (267 for 5). With Sri Lanka still needing 49 runs to avoid the follow on, New Zealand had an opportunity to make inroads into the Sri Lankan lower order.

But Kaluwitharana and Tillakaratne saw off the second new ball, sped past the follow-on target and carried Sri Lanka to a position of safety during an entertaining partnership that spanned just 156 balls.

Kaluwitharana was responsible for the bulk of the scoring, as Tillakaratne - all his concentration focussed on survival - contributed just 26 runs to the partnership. He wasted no time in launching his attack. He lived on the wild side, flashing a couple of early boundaries through the slip cordon, including an edge that bisected second and fourth slip when he had made just 15.

Afterwards, however, apart from an edge off Daniel Vettori that dropped just short of Fleming at slip, his strokeplay was imperious, most of his runs coming from rifle-crack cuts and pulls. Scott Styris, who bowled his first spell of the game after recovering from a shoulder injury, was treated particularly harshly, being flayed for 28 runs in three trundling overs.

Kaluwitharana had a chance to score his fourth Test hundred in a single session, but with the adrenaline pumping fast, he perished 30 minutes before the break. Dancing down the pitch to Paul Wiseman, he mistimed a lofted drive and was caught by Matthew Sinclair at midwicket(374 for 6).

Soon after, Tillakaratne, who was joined by the first of the bowling allrounders, Kumar Dharmasena, kicked back into life with a brace of fours off Wiseman. A square cut off Shane Bond in the next over brought up his second consecutive hundred in Tests, the last one having come against South Africa at Centurion. He finished the session unbeaten on 105, having hit 17 fours. It was a knock that made the game safe, with a little help from the weather.