Four-wicket Herath leaves Kiwis in a spin

COLOMBO (AFP) - Left-arm spinner Rangana Herath grabbed four wickets as Sri Lanka pushed New Zealand towards a massive defeat in the second and final Test here on Saturday. The Kiwis, battling for survival after being set an improbable victory target of 494 runs, slumped to 182-6 in their second knock by close of the fourth day's play. Daniel Flynn was the only top-order batsman to defy the Sri Lankan bowlers with 50, the left-hander's best performance in the series after scores of 14, 0 and 13 in the previous three innings. At stumps, Jacob Oram was unbeaten on seven and skipper Daniel Vettori was on five. Sri Lanka won the first Test in Galle by 202 runs last week and a 2-0 sweep of the series will make them number two in the official Test rankings behind South Africa. The hosts currently share the second spot with India. New Zealand coach Andy Moles lashed out at his batsmen, saying watching them gift away their wickets was "very disappointing and very frustrating." "In all honesty, we failed today," said Moles. "These are very talented cricketers but they make the same mistakes over and over again." He said the wicket was spinner-friendly but that was no excuse for his six opening batsmen. Earlier, Sri Lanka declared their second innings soon after lunch at 311-5, in which skipper Kumar Sangakkara scored 109 and former captain Mahela Jayawardene made 96. Jayawardene, who hit 92 in the first innings, missed a century for the second time in the Test when he edged Iain O'Brien to Taylor at first slip soon after lunch. Sangakkara declared at the fall of Jayawardene's wicket, leaving his bowlers four-and-a-half sessions to bowl out the tourists. Tim McIntosh and Martin Guptill put on 36 for the first wicket before both batsmen were dismissed in the space of five runs. McIntosh, who plodded for 48 minutes to make seven, was bowled as he shouldered to a straight ball from fast bowler Dammika Prasad. Guptill hit four boundaries in a fluent 28 when he edged the first ball from Herath to wicket-keeper Prasanna Jayawardene, and walked before the umpire raised his finger. Ross Taylor and Flynn added 56 for the third wicket on either side of the tea interval when Herath had Taylor caught in the slips for 27 with a ball that spun sharply across the batsman. Flynn, who batted for two hours to compile his fourth Test half-century, became Herath's third victim when he played back to a straight ball, missed the line and was declared leg-before. Brendon McCullum dragged a wide ball from Muttiah Muralitharan on to his off-stump after making 13 to leave New Zealand in deep trouble at 158-5. Jesse Ryder propped up the total by making 38 before he was leg-before to Herath in the penultimate over of the day. Earlier, Sangakkara's 20th Test century was his third this year and the sixth at his favourite hunting ground, the Sinhalese Sports Club. He put on 173 for the third wicket with Jayawardene before being caught in the slips by Taylor off Jeetan Patel. The left-hander hit 12 boundaries and a six during his four-hour stay at the crease. SCOREBOARD SRI LANKA 1st innings: 416 (K. Sangakkara 50, M. Jayawardene 92, T. Samaraweera 143, J. Patel 4-78, D. Vettori 3-104) NEW ZEALAND 1st innings: 234 (R. Taylor 81, R. Herath 3-70, M. Muralitharan 3-71) SRI LANKA 2nd innings (overnight 157-2): T. Dilshan c Guptill b Patel 33 T. Paranavitana c McCullum b Vettori 34 K. Sangakkara c Taylor b Patel 109 M. Jayawardene c Taylor b O'Brien 96 T. Samaraweera lbw b Vettori 25 C. Kapugedera not out 7 EXTRAS: (lb1, w2, nb4) 7 TOTAL (for 5 wkts decl, 85.2 overs) 311 Fall of wickets: 1-56 (Dilshan), 2-89 (Paranavitana), 3-262 (Sangakkara), 4-301 (Samaraweera), 5-311 (Jayawardene). BOWLING: Vettori 24-4-62-2 O'Brien 15.2-1-77-1 (nb3, w1) Martin 9-0-34-0 (w1) Patel 34-2-122-2 Ryder 3-0-15-0 (nb1). NEW ZEALAND 2nd innings: T. McIntosh b Prasad 7 M. Guptill c P. Jayawardene b Herath 28 D. Flynn lbw b Herath 50 R. Taylor c M. Jayawardene b Herath 27 J. Ryder lbw b Herath 38 B. McCullum b Muralitharan 13 J. Oram not out 7 D. Vettori not out 5 EXTRAS: (lb6, nb1) 7 TOTAL (for 6 wkts, 56 overs) 182 Fall of wickets: 1-36 (McIntosh), 2-41 (Guptill), 3-97 (Taylor), 4-131 (Flynn), 5-158 (McCullum), 6-176 (Ryder). BOWLING: Paranavitana 1-0-2-0 Thushara 14-1-39-0 (nb1) Prasad 7-1-21-1 Herath 21-5-73-4 Muralitharan 12-0-39-1 Dilshan 1-0-2-0 New Zealand's target: 494 Toss: Sri Lanka Umpires: Daryl Harper (AUS) and Nigel Llong (ENG) TV umpire: Kumar Dharmasena (SRI) Match referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM).

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