Why does Sri Lanka-New Zealand have a rest day?

There will be no play on what would have been day four of the Test match, but this is not an unexpected occurrence. Nor is it due to inclement weather, or any other unforeseen delays.

When the schedule for the two-Test series was announced close to a month ago, it was decided that the first Test would be played over a six-day period, with today (September 21) being a 'rest day' for the players.

In their official statement, Sri Lanka Cricket stated the reason as follows: "21st September will be a rest day of the 1st Test Match owing to the Presidential Election of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka."

The Sri Lankans will be voting on Saturday for the first time since their economy crashed in 2022. In all, 38 candidates are in the mix, including the incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Leader of Opposition Sajith Premadasa, and opposition legislator Anura Kumara Dissanayake.

Polling is set to begin on 10am and last until 4pm, coinciding with usual Test timings.

Rest days had been a feature of Test cricket in the 20th century but have slowly slipped out of fashion with the packed nature of the cricketing calendar these days. The last rest day in Test cricket before this one came in 2008, when Sri Lanka visited Bangladesh in 2008.

On that occasion, the first Test in Mirpur had been schedule from December 26-31, with December 29 allotted as a rest day due to a parliamentary election.

What has happened in the match so far?

Sri Lanka elected to bat first and were in a spot of bother at 106-4 on day one, before Kamindu Mendis (114) and Kusal Mendis (50) put on 103 for the sixth wicket, and helped their side post a decent, if not daunting 305.

In reply, New Zealand started strongly with three fifty-plus partnerships for the first three wickets, to end day two at 255-4. But they suffered an almighty collapse on the morning of day three, losing five wickets for 31 runs to slip to 304-9. Some solid counter-attacking shots from Glenn Phillips (49*) helped them take a slender 35-run lead.

Thereafter, Sri Lanka's batters took them into the ascendancy. Pathum Nissanka departed early, but Dimuth Karunaratne and Dinesh Chandimal put on 147 runs for the second wicket. There was a mini-slide as they lost three wickets for 25 runs. Angelo Mathews (34*) and captain Dhananjaya de Silva (34*) then saw them to stumps with a 202-run lead.

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