GALLE: Prabath Jayasuriya took five wickets to steer Sri Lanka to a 63-run victory over New Zealand on the final morning of the first Test here on Monday.
Set a target of 275 to win, the Black Caps were bowled out for 211 less than 15 minutes after play resumed from overnight, with Rachin Ravindra top-scoring on 92.
Ravindra had finished on Sunday waging a lone battle on a sharply turning pitch in Galle, where the tourists had lost all four of their previous Test encounters.
His knock was the highest score by a New Zealander on the ground, eclipsing Ross Taylor’s 89 in 2019.
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But the slender path to victory he had opened was snapped shut when Jayasuriya trapped him lbw while trying to defend on the back foot, having only added a single run to the overnight total.
Prabath Jayasuriya, who took nine wickets across the match and finished the second innings 5-68, then brought the match to an end when he bowled rookie quick William O’Rourke for a duck.
O’Rourke, 23, had impressed for New Zealand with eight match wickets, including his second five-wicket haul from just three Test in the first innings.
Left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel claimed 6-90 in Sri Lanka’s second innings, the best figures by a New Zealand bowler in Sri Lanka since Daniel Vettori’s 6-64 in Colombo in 1998.
The second and final match of the series will be held at the same venue from Thursday.