Posted: August 22nd, 2009 - 12:37pm by Doug Powell

I don’t understand cricket -- other than it may be as boring as baseball --  but I do understand barf.

Tillakaratne Dilshan achieved the milestone he narrowly missed in Sri Lanka's first innings to post an unbeaten 123 as New Zealand became increasingly dependent on rain to stave off defeat in the first cricket test in Galle last night.

New Zealand had little to enthuse about once it became apparent morning rain would not stall the start of play for the first time since a delayed toss.

Their mood darkened further when Brendon McCullum and Jesse Ryder called in sick at breakfast, the worst affected of eight players struck down by food poisoning.

Only Ross Taylor, Martin Guptill and Iain O'Brien were immune from the bug that provided Auckland wicketkeeper Reece Young with his first experience of test cricket.