Sri Lanka vs. Australia 1st Test Match
Sri Lanka vs. Australia was going to be an interesting Test series it is being played in Sri Lanka, and at home Sri Lanka are known to be very strong, so this series was going to be a well-played and toughly fought one. Australia are a strong team but Sri Lanka are in the re-building phase, so this was another challenge in front of Sri Lanka. Both teams would have wanted to win the first Test match as they would have wanted to have an upper hand, going into the second Test match. Sri Lanka were batting first and they collapsed the Australian bowlers just ran through the Sri Lankan batting line-up to bowl them out for 117 runs.
The Australian batting faired a little bit better but not much either, as they were all out for 203 runs. The Sri Lankan bowlers ran through the Australian batting line-up as well. Sri Lanka played much better in their second innings and racked up the runs the century by Mendis really helped them out so much he scored 176 runs. His helped lead his team to a score of 353 runs setting Australia a very steep challenge. Australia though found themselves in big trouble as they were losing wickets regularly, and were struggling big time. The dangerous Herath grabbed 5 wickets, and Australia were all out for 161 runs and they had lost the first Test match handing victory to Sri Lanka.
New Zealand vs. Zimbabwe 1st Test match
Zimbabwe were batting first and they didn’t really score a competitive total in order to pose a challenge to New Zealand. Zimbabwe were struggling from the onset, and the New Zealand bowlers proved to be too strong for the Zimbabwe batting line up. In their first innings they scored 164 runs. New Zealand in their first innings racked up the runs and Zimbabwe were left wondering what can they do, as the top order New Zealand batsman really piled on the runs and made life hard for Zimbabwe. Latham and Taylor notched up centuries, and they played incredibly well which was expected from this dominating New Zealand side.
Even the lower order batsman Watling notched up a century to had to run feast that New Zealand were building. They ended their innings on 576 runs and Zimbabwe were put into bat again and in their second innings the fighting spirit was there. Zimbabwe were battling hard to try and save this match. It was Ervine and Williams who stood out in the Zimbabwe second innings especially William who was fighting a lone battle he was scoring the runs for Zimbabwe but he was losing batting partners. He finished on 119 runs and Zimbabwe were all out for 295 runs. New Zealand won this match by an innings and 117 runs. Tiripano for a No10 batsman fought well for his team he lasted 40 minutes and he definitely will be scoring more runs in his Test career. Zimbabwe need to re-group for the next Test match and keep the fighting spirit alive.