Henry Nicholls credits personal failure early in his career for his valuable contribution to New Zealand’s game plan as they continued to dominate the second Test against Sri Lanka in Christchurch yesterday.
A year ago the middle-order batsman was struggling to hold his place in the side, but a personal best 162 not out and a 214-run partnership with opener Tom Latham (176) were key to New Zealand having Sri Lanka on the ropes at the end of the third day.
New Zealand declared their second innings at 585-4, to lead by 659 runs and at stumps Sri Lanka in their second innings were 24-2.
Photo: AP
“I was really lucky. I learned a lot early in my career through a lot of failure,” Nicholls said after his third century this year.
It has lifted his average to a respectable 43.15 in his 22nd Test. It was less than 25 after his first 10 innings.
“I consider myself really grateful, the selectors and everyone in the team had a lot of confidence and faith in me that I’d use those experiences to make me a better player,” he said.
Nicholls, Latham and Colin de Grandhomme (71 not out) effected a plan to tire the Sri Lanka players in the field.
“That’s what we tried to do in terms of keeping them out for so long, especially in that last period, running them around as much as we could,” the 27-year-old said.
“Then having that little burst later in the day, picking up a couple of big wickets was probably the ideal script for us,” Nicholls said.
Play is to resume on the fourth day today with Dinesh Chandimal on 14, Kusal Menis on 6 and Sri Lanka needing another 636 runs with eight wickets and two days remaining.
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