New Zealand may have lost the toss but they responded in exemplary fashion, snuffing out Pathum Nissanka in the first over, before pouching Dimuth Karunaratne at first slip shortly after. Dinesh Chandimal looked to play positively, but New Zealand's positive approach - keeping in a second slip - reaped swift rewards as he became the third Lankan top-order batter to edge behind. And New Zealand's perfect day only continued when a Will O'Rourke no-ball off the final delivery of his over meant his next one - the extra delivery - strangled Angelo Mathews down leg. Dhananjaya de Silva was at the crease alongside Kamindu Mendis at lunch, wondering just how it had gone so wrong after winning what was supposed to be a crucial toss.
Welcome to the multiverse of madness fine margins. Doesn't quite roll off the tongue as the Marvel one, but don't for a second think New Zealand wouldn't consider making all sorts of morally ambiguous choices to slip right into any other universe right now. See, if you're slow on the uptake (read: only clicked on this article and nothing else), that intro is not quite right.
Yes, Sri Lanka won the toss and, yes, Nissanka edged behind off the final ball of the first over, but that's about it. New Zealand thereafter embodied their slightly less competent self from seemingly another reality.
Karunaratne was grassed by Daryl Mitchell at first slip, before later being let off as Tom Blundell fumbled a stumping. Chandimal, meanwhile, was fortunate to edge between third slip and gully when he was only on four, but then it happened again in the 13th over - this time as New Zealand had opted to go without a second slip.
The end result of these costly errors (and some just regulation bad luck) was a 122-run second-wicket stand, which was precisely what skipper de Silva would have been hoping for when he won his sixth toss in a row in Tests (yeah, he definitely doesn't want to inhabit a different universe).
Even the breakthrough came against the run of play. Karunaratne's call on a quick run to midwicket was turned down by Chandimal, leading to a mix-up which saw the former nowhere near returning to his crease. That he even made the frame was down to a throw from Glenn Phillips that found Tom Latham at short leg instead of Blundell closer to the stumps.
But if New Zealand thought that this would prove to be a watershed in terms of their fortunes, the universe was only just getting started.
You know that whole bit about Mathews being strangled down leg after a no-ball, well in this reality that ball too was a no-ball. Couldn't script it, really, but then again there are supposedly an infinite number of realities. Mathews also wound up edging one behind shortly after, but as the fates would have it, the ball fell short of first slip.
Chandimal's chanced innings then continued with a leading edge dying on Tim Southee at short cover, four runs short of his 16th Test ton. And as if to really punctuate the milestone, once reaching it, he edged yet another drive past first slip.
With New Zealand uncharacteristically unreliable in the field, Chandimal eventually fell after playing all around a sharp-turning off break from Phillips. By then Sri Lanka had 221 on the board, but if the first Test had shown anything, it is that wickets breed more wickets. Still, when you're running bad even quads aren't safe.
See the scale of New Zealand's misfortune by this point had already reached rotten levels, so much so that new units of measurement were being expediently crafted following the close of play.
How else would you choose to surmise the series of events that followed: Kamindu edging twice through a vacant second slip region, before getting a full-blooded edge that Mitchell was only able to parry away for four. Disastrophy? That could work, potentially. Especially after Mathews became the third Sri Lankan batter to be dropped, as he fenced away a sharp bouncer from the luckless O'Rourke that Latham at second slip could only get fingertips on.
Mercifully for the visitors, that was to be the last of their close calls, as Sri Lanka ended the day having piled on 306 runs for the loss of three wickets at stumps. But things can change quickly in Test cricket, particularly in Galle, and especially on a new day.
"A lot of days are like that in Test cricket actually," stated Glenn Phillips reflecting on the day's play. "A lot of the time at home, especially on the greener wickets, they get edged quite often either just before or just over the slips fielders.
"That's part and parcel of the game, but it really makes you feel like you're in it. And if you can create some pressure for a long period of time, then you definitely feel like you're not that far away from a couple of quick ones. We could come out tomorrow and they could potentially be bowled out for 330, as simple as that."
But until then, New Zealand would, as a collective perhaps, do well to keep an eye out for any stray banana peels or rakes lying around.