Black Caps v Sri Lanka: All you need to know ahead of the first test - start time, odds, how to watch, live streaming

Captains Tim Southee and Dimuth Karunaratne with the series trophy. Photosport

All you need to know ahead of the first test between the Black Caps and Sri Lanka.

Schedule

New Zealand v England, from 11am, Hagley Oval, Christchurch.

First session - 11-1pm. Lunch 1pm-1.40pm

Second session - 1.40pm-3.40pm. Tea 3.40pm-4pm

Final session - 4pm-6pm.

The stakes

Sri Lanka need to win the series 2-0 to have a chance to make the World Test Championship final at the Oval in June. But they need India to lose or draw the final test against Australia starting today. Sri Lanka have a solid but not amazing CV over the 2021-23 WTC window (beat West Indies 2-0, lost to India 2-0, beat Bangladesh 1-0, drew with Australia 1-1, drew with Pakistan 1-1). They have played 12 tests in the World Test Championship window, the fewest of any team along with Bangladesh. New Zealand have played only one more though. Also, Sri Lanka haven’t played a test since July last year.

Matt Henry eyeing happy homecoming at Hagley Oval

For the Black Caps, it’s the chance to win their first test series since 2021 - having drawn the previous three tours by Bangladesh, South Africa and England.

Ones to watch

Dinesh Chandimal has the highest batting average of all players across this WTC cycle at 77.80, propped up by 206 not out against Australia in Galle last year and 124 vs Bangladesh. He has four half centuries in New Zealand.

31-year-old Prabath Jayasuriya has only three tests to his name, all played at Galle last July, so he might be a different prospect away from home but he’s carved out a cracking record so far - 29 wickets at 20.37. He took 12 wickets in his first test against Australia (6-118 and 6-59) followed by another five wicket bag in his second test against Pakistan.

Tom Latham has scored 927 runs against Sri Lanka with an average of 77.25, with four of his 13 test hundreds scored against them. They are set to be the first team he has scored more than 1000 runs against. Kane Williamson is closer to the same milestone, having scored 992 runs at an average of 66.13 including three hundreds and a high score of 242 not out.

Devon Conway, Tom Blundell, Daryl Mitchell, Matt Henry Blair Tickner and Michael Bracewell have all yet to play a test against Sri Lanka.

History

Sri Lanka have won only two of their 19 tests in New Zealand, in 1995 and 2006. They last played a test series here in 2018, with the first test at the Basin finishing in a draw in which Tom Latham made 264 not out, before the Black Caps won the second test in Christchurch by 423 runs, Latham made 176 and Henry Nicholls 162. Sri Lanka’s most recent win here, 17 years ago, came at the Basin when Lasith Malinga (5-68 and 2-62) and Mutiah Muralidaran (4-31 and 6-87) were too hard to handle along with impressive knocks by Kumar Sangakkara (156) in the first innings and a Chamara Silva (152) in the second innings led to a 217-run victory.

Teams

New Zealand (probable): 1 Tom Latham, 2 Devon Conway, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Henry Nicholls, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Tom Blundell (wicketkeeper), 7 Michael Bracewell, 8 Tim Southee (captain), 9 Matt Henry, 10 Neil Wagner, 11 Blair Tickner.

Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Oshada Fernando, 2 Dimuth Karunaratne (captain), 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Angelo Mathew, 5 Dinesh Chandimal, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva, 7 Niroshan Dickwella (wicketkeeper), 8 Vishwa Fernando, 9 Kasun Rajitha, 10 Prabath Jayasuriya, 11 Asitha Fernando.

Form

Last five matches:

New Zealand WLLLD

Sri Lanka WLWLW

Umpires

Michael Gough, Chris Gaffaney.

Odds (TAB)

New Zealand - $1.18, Draw - $7.60, England - $8.30

How to watch

The Herald will provide live updates at nzherald.co.nz/sport.

The game will be broadcast and streamed live on Spark Sport and the Spark Sport app. The ACC will be covering every ball live on Spark Sport from 2pm each day. Text “Cricket” to 3236 for a link to the coverage.

The ACC’s BYC podcast opening partnership of Dylan Cleaver and Andrew Alderson will also review each day’s play which will be available on nzherald.co.nz.