By Srian Obeyesekere

Sri Lanka demolished New Zealand by 63 runs with leg spinner Prabath Jayasuriya running through the last two wickets in double quick time seeing off Rachin Ravindra, the one one barrier trapping him leg before wicket for 92 for the addition of just one run to his overnight score with the third delivery of the second over and 13 balls later clean bowling last man William O’Rourke for a duck, in just fifteen minutes play on the final day to going 1-up in the 2-match test series this morning at the Galle International Cricket Stadium.

The emphatic triumph rocketed Sri Lanka three pegs up to third from sixth in the ICC World Test Championship on the back of Jayasuriya finally coming to the show from a lean early phase of the match as the crumbling surface by the fourth day saw the Left-armer at his very best rhythm for a second innings haul of 5 for 68 for match bab Player of the Match reward of 9 for 204 from a marathon 70.4 overs.

Sri Lanka 305 (Kamindu 114, O’Rourke 5-55, Phillips 2-52) and 309 (Karunaratne 83, Ajaz 6-90, O’Rourke 3-49) beat New Zealand 340 (Latham 70, Jayasuriya 4-136, Ramesh 3-101) and 211 (Ravindra 92, Jayasuriya 5-68, Ramesh 3-83) by 63 runs.