Sri Lanka resumed their tour of New Zealand, which had been postponed due to the Tsunami tragedy. One was not sure which team would start as favourites as New Zealand were coming off a disastrous series against their Trans-Tasman rivals Australia, while Sri Lanka were without two of their main strike bowlers, Nuwan Zoysa and spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan. But at the end of five gruelling days of Test cricket in Napier, the visitors are undoubtedly the ones who will have their noses in front, going into the second Test at Wellington despite the match ending up in a stalemate.

And a lot of credit for this should go to Lasith Malinga, the wiry medium-pacer with a 'slinging' action, who impressed one and all with a nine-wicket haul in the match. At the end of the fourth day, the Test seemed destined for a draw. But Malinga certainly had other ideas. He bowled with raw pace and intelligence, bouncing the batsmen and also slipping in his deadly yorkers to give the Kiwis a big scare. It required a captain's knock from Stephen Fleming who came back after being retired hurt to thwart Malinga and the other bowlers. Fleming, batting with an injured hand, hung on bravely for close to three hours for his resolute 41. He got good support from the unpredictable Lou Vincent who contributed a vital half-century and along with his skipper helped the home side secure a draw.

Apart from the Malinga burst, the Napier Test was mostly dominated by the men with the willow in hand. Day one saw Hamish Marshall, who is rapidly becoming New Zealand's most consistent batsman, notch up his second Test century. Marshall looked in no trouble at all during his stint at the crease and faced both the seamers and spinners with ease. With strokes all round the ground, he was an absolute treat to watch. Twin brother James also made an impression, getting his maiden half-century in Tests. The first identical Twins ever to play Test cricket, James and Hamish set a great platform for the latter batsmen to capitalise on.

Nathan Astle made full use of the great start provided by the twins. The attacking middle-order batsmen teamed up with Hamish Marshall to put the Sri Lankan attack to the swords. Marshall went on to score a dazzling 160 before falling to Malinga while Astle too joined the centurion club and stroked his way to a brilliant 114. There were more problems in store for the Sri Lankans though.

Wicket-Keeper Brendon McCullun came in and blasted the bowlers on what was turning out to be a beauty of a pitch. McCullun seemed in total control of his innings till he got to the nervous 90s. It was Malinga again who had the dangerous-looking McCullum leg before with a well-disguised slower ball one short of his 100 and prevented him from becoming the third centurion in the Kiwi innings. The tail too wagged for the Kiwis though, adding to Lanka's misery. James Franklin seems to be taking on the bowling all-rounder's role in the absence of Daniel Vettori. The left-hander showed that his useful knocks against Australia were not a flash in the pan with a sensible half-century. He got good support from Paul Wiseman who played a cameo of 27 as New Zealand ended up scoring a mammoth 561.  

With the batsmen having done a great job, it was now the turn of the Kiwi bowlers to put the Sri Lankans under pressure. But this was just too good a batting pitch for the Marvan Atapattu and co to fail. The reliable pair of Atapattu and Jayasuriya got Sri Lanka off too a much needed good start. But Jayasuriya, looking set for yet another big score, was lbw to Chris Martin just two short of his half-century. Martin struck soon after getting rid of the extremely talented Kumar Sangakkara and New Zealand had a chance of making some inroads into the Lankan batting order. But it was not to be so. The exit of Sangakkara brought to the crease another gifted and now experienced player Mahela Jayawardene. Along with the skipper, Mahela did to the Kiwi bowlers what Astle and Hamish Marshall did to their bowlers. Both made impressive centuries as the New Zealanders had no idea how to stop the flow of runs. Atapattu completed his 5,000 runs in Test cricket, something which he might not have dreamt of after getting six ducks in his first few Test innings. He was out soon after for 127, but had done more than enough to rescue his side from a tricky situation.

The Sri Lankan juggernaut continued with Thilan Samaraweera joining Mahela in the run feast. The latter was dismissed for a belligerent 141 which had class written all over it. Samaraveera was not so lucky though. He fell for 88, caught by the Kiwi skipper of Martin who ended up with four scalps. James Franklin then ran through the tail as Sri Lanka lost their last five wickets for a mere 45 runs and fell 63 runs short of the Kiwi total.

Malinga struck twice late on day four in the Kiwi second innings, but still not many had their odds on a result on the final day. Things did not quite go according to plan for the home side though. Nightwatchman Paul Wiseman went early, unable of survive the Malinga burst. And soon New Zealand found themselves in big trouble with the middle-order collapsing until Fleming and Vincent prevented another humiliation for the Kiwis.