Charlie Austin
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1st Test: Sri Lanka v West Indies at Galle, 13-17 Nov 2001 Charlie Austin |
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West Indies 1st innings:
Pre-game: |
Sarwan has been positive throughout the afternoon session and had scored 54 runs. After tea, though, he became becalmed, facing 29 balls for his next nine runs. Looking edgy, he finally commited a cardinal sin: trying to cut across the spin of Muralitharan.
He played the ball onto his stumps to end a record 145 run stand for the third wicket. He had scored 88 from 213 balls and hit nine boundaries in his four-hour innings.
Lara, meanwhile, continues to dominate the Sri Lankan bowling on a flat wicket and has moved onto 92, eight runs short of his 16th Test century and his first in 16 innings.
Carl Hooper has now come to the crease and has already driven one elegant boundary straight down the ground. He has made 15.
West Indies, starting the session on 85 for one, added 125 runs and hit 18 boundaries in the two hours after lunch, dispelling Sri Lankan hopes that Muttiah Muralitharan might run through the tourists batting on a spinner friendly surface.
The right-handed Sarwan looks set for his first Test century on 79 from 184 balls, whilst Lara, keen to prove that he is not a spent force, has raced to 59 from 90 balls.
Lara has looked particularly impressive. He did enjoy some early moments of fortune against Muralitharan and when wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara grassed a difficult chance off the left-arm spin of Sanath Jayasuriya, when he had scored 31, but otherwise his batting has been sublime.
His seven boundaries have all been perfectly executed shots and the speed with which he is accumulating runs is a major worry for the Sri Lanka camp, who are not used to this run-rate on a traditionally low scoring game.
Sri Lanka’s fielding deteriorated under the pressure and in the last over before tea Hashan Tillakaratne dropped Sarwan at short leg.
Skipper Jayasuriya has now been forced to try seven bowlers as he desperately searches for a breakthrough before this Test is taken away from the home team.
The West Indies, on 85 for one at the interval, were 153 for two at the afternoon drinks break, having lost Daren Ganga for 47.
Ganga looked well set to complete his second Test fifty, but tried to tried to reach it with a boundary and was caught at backward point by Mahela Jayawardene after edging a wide delivery from Vaas.
Brian Lara came to the crease and soon signaled his positive intent by getting off the mark with a sweep behind square off Muttiah Muralitharan. He then struggled against the off-spinner, twice being beaten outside his off stump as he tried to work the ball to leg.
Sarwan has looked a different player after lunch, twice driving Vaas through the covers. He followed that with two square cuts off Thilan Samaraweera and a thumping cover drive off Niroshan Bandaratillake.
The pair started to score runs freely and added 50 runs from just 73 balls.
Sarwan completed his seventh Test fifty and was 61 not out at the break. Lara has raced to 26 from 42 balls, having hit three boundaries so far.
Right-handed opener Daren Ganga, who scored painstakingly slow fifty in Matara three days ago, led the way with a more positive unbeaten 46 from 98 balls, which included four boundaries.
Ramnaresh Sarwan, who had come to the wicket after Chaminda Vaas had Gayle caught behind for nine, gave good support and had scored 25 from 84 balls at the luncheon interval.
So far, the pair have added 70 runs for the second wicket.
Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya chopped and changed his bowlers throughout the morning, using five in all, but they failed to create any further chances or near misses.
The young West Indian batsmen negotiated the key threat of Muttiah Muralitharan, who was forced to swap ends in any effort to make the breakthrough.
However, they were not untroubled by the master tweaker, especially by his quick straight call that slide past the batsmen’s outside edge frequently.
He finished the morning wicketless on a ground where he is normally prolific. He has taken 40 wickets in the previous six Tests played here.
The left-arm spin of both Niroshan Bandaratillake and Jayasuriya has been tried, but to no avail for Sri Lanka.
West Indies, however, has lost not further wickets, despite the early introduction of Muttiah Muralitharan, and at the drinks interval they were 37 for one after 15 overs.
Vaas, who was in excellent form during the recent triangular series in Sharjah, bowled with good pace on the dry pitch and extracted surprising bounce.
He very nearly bowled Daren Ganga in the first over of the Test with a full length inswinger that caught his inside edge and just missed his stumps before racing past his stumps to the fine leg boundary.
Charitha Buddhika Fernando, making his Test debut, also started well, moving the new ball and occasionally beating the batsmen.
Gayle, who had scored an impressive 120 in the Matara practice game before this Test, failed to unsettle. He played one glorious straight drive off Fernando, but was dismissed in the next over for nine: caught at the wicket of a well-pitched delivery from Vaas that moved away from the left-hander.
Sarwan came into bat at number three, a position he has taken after the absence of Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
Sri Lanka wasted no time before introducing Muttiah Muralitharan into the attack. The off-spinner started bowling from the City End in the tenth over of the morning.
Ganga was 17 not out at the interval and Sarwan had scored 10.
The decision was not a difficult one to make on a scorching hot day in Galle with 90 per cent humidity levels. The pitch is brown, flat and dry, promising the batsmen runs aplenty before the cracks start to crumble later in the game.
As expected Sri Lanka picked three spinners: off-spinners Muttiah Muralitharan and Thilan Samaraweera, plus slow left-arm Niroshan Bandaratillake, 26, who is playing his fifth Test after two years in the wilderness.
The home team also picked Charitha Buddika Fernando as the second seamer after his impressive form in Sharjah. The team manager, Ajit Jayasekera, said: "The management felt that he was in good form and deserved a chance."
West Indies confirmed that they too have packed their side with spinners after a last minute injury to fast bowler Reon King on Monday. He has a suspected hernia.
They will be playing only two quick bowlers, a strategy last used at Anitgua in April when they lost to South Africa by 82 runs. Manager Ricky Skerrit said that the decision to play the extra spinner would have been taken even if King had not been ruled out.
Left-arm spinner Neil McGarrell is therefore included alongside leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine and off-spinning all-rounder Carl Hooper. MacGarrell will be playing despite not having played a single game so far in the tour.
This is the seventh Test match in Galle. Sri Lanka have won four of the previous six. Only one Test has every reached the fourth innings on a pitch that is notoriously spinner friendly and prone to breaking up.
Sri Lanka:
Sanath Jayasuriya (capt), Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Russel Arnold, Hashan Tillakaratne, Thilan Samaraweera, Chaminda Vaas, Niroshan Bandaratillake, Muttiah Muralithathan, Charitha Buddika Fernando
West Indies:
Carl Hooper (capt), Daren Ganga, Chris Gayle, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Brian Lara, Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs, Mervyn Dillon, Colin Stuart, Dinanath Ramnarine, Neil McGarrell
© CricInfo
Date-stamped : 13 Nov2001 - 18:34