New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori took two wickets on Wednesday to join the elite club with 3,000 runs and 300 wickets in Tests, as Sri Lanka reached 146-3 at tea on the opening day of the second Test.
The Black Caps captain, playing his 94th Test, dismissed opener Tharanga Paranavitana (19) in the first session caught by Ross Taylor at slip and snared his opposing captain Kumar Sangakkara (50) in the middle session caught by Jacob Oram to reach 300 wickets. He has 3,329 runs.
Other players to have reached the 3,000-300 milestone were Kapil Dev (India), Richard Hadlee (New Zealand), Ian Botham (England), Imran Khan (Pakistan), Shane Warne (Australia), Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka) and Shaun Pollock (South Africa).
New Zealand, which lost the opener of the two-Test series by 202 runs, managed to restrict Sri Lanka’s scoring, with the hosts run rate at under three per over.
Sangakkara played a patient 96-ball innings for his 32nd half century, hitting nine boundaries.
Iain O’Brien took a return catch soon after lunch to dismiss the dangerous Tillakaratne Dilshan (29), who had starred in the opening Test. At tea, Mahela Jayawardene was on 31 and Thilan Samaraweera on 15.
Sri Lanka made three changes to its team from the first Test: strike bowler Nuwan Kulasekera, spinner Ajantha Mendis and Anjelo Mathews were rested, replaced by Dammika Prasad, Rangana Herath and Chamara Kapugedera. New Zealand was unchanged.
