Right, not the best day of test cricket this summer from the Cappies. Not the worst either, but definitely not the best.

It shows you how important numbers three and four are in the batting line-up. That’s where you chuck in the two best batters in the team and that’s where the strength of the run-scoring should lie. So when your numbers three and four score a single combined run you find your team struggling to limit the first innings deficit.

First off, quality to start in wrapping up the Sri Lankan effort. Angelo Mathews was dismissed nice and early, the tail soon followed. Then Guppy and Latham saw the team through to 81/0 and things looked great. Guptill in particular had to ride his luck on the way, relying on big shots to ease the pressure, but then that’s something we’ve all wanted to see a bit more from him so fair play.

And then things went bad and they did so in a particularly frustrating way. Latham flicked one to leg slip. Williamson lobbed one out deep to midwicket on the pull. Guptill took a big swing towards a protected long on boundary and edged it to slip. Three reckless dismissals. Like, you don’t put a leg slip in without a plan to bowl to it. The telegraph came through on time and Latham didn’t bother to read it. Williamson made a poor decision early in an innings, nobody saw that coming. Guppy got impatient the very ball after bringing up his fifty. Great captaincy by Mathews in setting plans and getting his bowlers to play to them but you really don’t expect the batsmen to play so easily into your hands like that. McCullum woulda been the same as he holed out deep had he not been reprieved by a no-ball, though he was soon on his way for real, caught in close by an edge onto the pad.

Luckily these are the situations that BJ Watling was born for. He and Mitch Santner added 40 for the sixth wicket to steady the ship from 128/5 but Santner edged one behind on 38. Inexplicably given not out but that only meant that we got to see one of the rarest occurrences in modern cricket: a properly used referral. Watling left soon after before Wagnuts and Dougie added a few more. The day ended with Wags wicket, caught on the drive for 17 with a deficit of 60 runs and one wicket remaining. Bracewell is 30 not out.

You know who’s a really good bowler? Dushmantha Chameera. He’s a very raw 23 years old but he has pure pace, hitting 146 km/h in this innings on the way to a career-best 5/47 from 12.4 overs with 3 maidens. The ball he picked up Ross Taylor with was a beauty, short and sharp and right on a line where Rossco couldn’t get out of the way of it, clipping his thumb on the way to the keeper. Chameera is a guy who’s had injury trouble in the past after heavy loads of work so that gives an indication as to why he felt underused at times, though Mathews, to his credit, probably handled him perfectly – especially with very solid offerings from the rest of his staff (including himself, bowling 7 maidens in 11 overs).

You’ve also gotta say that the Lankans batted very well, given hindsight. It looked like they got a bunch of starts and nobody carried on but then they took advantage a fair bit better than NZ did. This is a wicket that is providing movement off the ground for accurate, disciplined bowling. You can battle hard for two hours and still get a ripper that nicks you out. Mathews and Siriwardana scored 138 valuable runs for the fifth wicket and New Zealand are only in range thanks to the 81 runs that their openers put on – since then they’re 151/9. All the same, credit to Santner, Watling and Bracewell. They weren’t able to plug the leaks completely but they at least limited the damage with a few well-placed buckets. Nobody leaves the ball better than Watling by the way. There were more than a few sharp intakes of breath at Seddon Park when he rose his bat out of the way, all in vain.

Also, the ball hit the stumps and the bails didn’t fall off again. Sometimes that happens, let’s not freak out guys. Try hitting the base of middle on the full and see if they fall off that way. Yeah, they probably will. Wagner got Lakmal out straight away afterwards anyway.

Don’t panic too much about the state of the game. This is very much in the balance even with Sri Lanka almost certainly on the way to a 50 or so run lead. Our middle order won’t fail again in the second the way it did here – recent history tells as much – and there is plenty of cricket left a big run chase. Three more days, the third innings will be massive. The third day will be massive. After the first two days and innings were split, the thirds are going to be the ones that set up the entire rest of the course of this game.