|
|
|
| Sunday, 26 June 2005 |
 |
|
 |
Sports |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Lanka 'A' play themselves into a winning position Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Dambulla DAMBULLA, June 25 - Sri Lanka 'A' recovered from two early setbacks to play themselves into a winning position at the end of the third day of the first 4-day unofficial cricket Test against West Indies 'A' at the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium here today. Chasing a target of 317 runs for victory in four sessions of play, Sri Lanka 'A' ended the day at 126 for two wickets with opener Michael van Dort (47) and skipper Russel Arnold (36) sharing an unfinished partnership of 88. Sri Lanka 'A' require a further 190 runs off a minimum of 90 overs with eight wickets in hand on the final day, tomorrow, to go one-up in the three-match series. It is a target, which is well within their reach on a pitch that is still good for runs. West Indies 'A' suffered a vital blow to their chances of winning when their strike bowler Tino Best left the field after bowling only four balls of his seventh over. The extent of his injury and whether he will be able to bowl tomorrow was not known. Best pushed Sri Lanka on the backfoot when they began their run chase in the final session. He first forced opener Avishka Gunawardena to retire hurt at 16 with a quick delivery, which the batsman failed to get out of the way and hit him on his right elbow. Then bowling with fire and pace, he removed Jehan Mubarak for 15 and Malintha Gajanayake for a duck for figures of two for 21 in his opening spell of four overs. Sri Lanka 'A' team manager Anura Tennekoon said that Gunawardena's injury was not all that serious and he would resume batting sometime tomorrow. In the course of the Sri Lankan innings, the players and umpires had to take cover falling flat on their face to avoid a horde of bees as they flew across the ground. Apart from that short interruption and the rather excessive appealing from the West Indian fielders, nothing could deter the van Dort-Arnold partnership, which has put Sri Lanka 'A' with a chance of pulling off this test. West Indies 'A' resuming at 113 for three, progressed steadily batting for two sessions before they were dismissed for 278 on the stroke of tea. There were two notable contributions, which largely made up the West Indies 'A' innings - a rock-hard innings of 82 in 230 minutes from opener Ryan Ramdass and an equally determined knock of 70 in 140 minutes from wicket-keeper Carlton Baugh. But the man who frustrated Sri Lanka 'A' more than anything else was no. 10 Dwight Washington. He hung around for 99 minutes for just 10 runs. But in that time although his contribution was meager in terms of runs scored, it was valuable from West Indies point of view that he occupied the crease for as long as possible. Washington batted stoutly to enable his team add a valuable 76 runs for the last two wickets which extended their lead beyond the 300-run mark. When he came to the wicket, West Indies 'A' were ahead by only 240 and Sri Lanka 'A' would have been in the box seat had they captured the last two wickets. But Washington had other ideas and helped Baugh and Lawson in stands of 41 and 35 runs respectively for the last two wickets. Lawson's contribution was 29 off 22 balls with five fours. The rest of the West Indies batting was consumed by left-arm spinner Sajeewa Weerakoon who finished with three for 58 off 22 overs on a pitch that had improved considerably from the first day. Adding to his first innings tally of six, Weerakoon had not done badly to end with match figures of nine for 120. His spin partner from the opposite end Suraj Mohamed who took four in the
match for 162 runs was disappointing failing to bowl one line and to his
field. |
|
|||||||||
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
