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| Sunday, 17 July 2005 |
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Sri Lanka wins 150th Test by 6 wickets by Ranjan Anandappa
After some moments of uncertainty Sri Lanka made their 150th Test match a memorable one by defeating the West Indies by 6 wickets with a day to spare after tea on the fourth day of their first cricket Test at the SSC grounds yesterday. Sri Lanka who had to get 172 runs to win with almost one and a half days to spare were in a spot of bother till Mahela Jayawardena and Thilan Samaraweera were engaged in a massive rescue act considering the situation of the match with a 86-run stand for the fourth wicket off 72 balls. When Samaraweera finally got out for a well compiled 53 after facing 67 balls at 135 for 4 the side was well on course for victory after losing three of their top batsmen for 49 runs. Jayawardena was unbeaten on 41 facing 85 balls with four boundaries and Tillekeratne Dilshan unbeaten on 27 with five fours facing 26 deliveries. The West Indian pace battery spearheaded by Jermain Lawson who captured all four wickets threatened to rip through the home team's batting line up. Samaraweera strode into the wicket at a crucial stage with the dismissal of skipper Marvan Atapattu, who was caught behind by Ramdin off Lawson. Jermaine Lawson bowled with venom and aggression and was responsible of sending Jayasuriya, Atapattu and Sangakkara in quick succession . The West Indies quickies threw everything in an all out effort to make a match out of it while defending a meagre 172 runs. When the Windies pacemen were on full swing and the home team found reaching the target a tedious journey. Both Jayawardena and Samaraweera were hit by deliveries sent down by Best, but stood up courageously to bat on and put the team on path to victory. The day began with the visitors' overnight score at 59 for 6 with an overall lead of 117 runs. At this stage a couple of quick wickets early in the morning would have had the game as good as over. But the West Indians managed to run up a second innings score of 113 entirely due the efforts of their second half of their batting line up. After losing five wickets for 21 runs, Shivenerine Chanderpaul with his awkward stance, feet facing towards square leg as he is ready to face a delivery sent by the bowler from the direction of the leg umpire and Omari Banks took up the challenge trying to build up a substantial total to give their bowlers reasonable total to bowl at.
The pair did not do anything spectacular but stonewall batting aided by defensive field placings by the Sri Lankan captain kept the scoreboard moving sedately. Chanderpaul and Banks batted with increasing confidence then disaster struck for the visitors when Banks who was playing an effective supportive role to his skipper was unluckily ruled out to a bat-pad catch taken by Dilshan off Muralitharan and the next ball Powell was out in a similar fashion to a catch taken by Jayawardena and Muralithran was on a hat-trick. Skipper Chanderpaul played a composed innings of 48 spending 227 minutes at the crease facing 158 deliveries and striking a solitary four and a six. He was more on the defensive and so was Marvan Atapattu. Vaas who was judged Man-of-the Match for his all-round effort, had broken the backbone of the West Indian batting early in their innings taking four wickets but could not produce the same form as he did on the third day. Muralitharan got the break through when he had the luckless Banks caught by Dilshan and in the next ball was on a hat-trick. Tito Best not only averted the hat-trick he dug himself in with his skipper to produce a useful ninth wicket stand of 44 runs off 94 balls. Finally when the Windies were all out around noon for 113, Muralitharan had taken all four wickets to fall in the morning session to make his final tally of 6 for 36 off 21 overs and Vaas had the impressive figures of 4 for 15 in 18 overs. WEST INDIES - 1ST INNINGS 285
(S. Chanderpaul 69, D. Ramdin 56, L. Malinga 4-71,
C. Vaas 3-35)
SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS 227
(C. Vaas 49, M. Muralitharan 36, J. Lawson 4-59)
WEST INDIES - 2ND INNINGS (overnight 59-6)
S. Joseph c Jayawardena b Muralitharan 2
X. Marshall lbw b Vaas 2
R. Morton lbw b Vaas 0
N. Deonarine lbw b Vaas 7
S. Chanderpaul not out 48
D. Smith lbw b Vaas 0
D. Ramdin lbw b Muralitharan 11
O. Banks c Dilshan b Muralitharan 7
D. Powell c Jayawardena b Muralitharan 0
T. Best st Sangakkara b Muralitharan 27
J. Lawson c sub b Muralitharan 0
EXTRAS (B-8, NB-1) 9
TOTAL (all out in 60 overs) 113
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-3, 2-3, 3-15, 4-21, 5-21,
6-48, 7-69, 8-69, 9-113
BOWLING: Vaas 18-9-15-4, Malinga 12-5-22-0,
Muralitharan 21-9-36-6, Jayasuriya 6-1-20-0,
Herath 3-0-12-0.
SRI LANKA - 2ND INNINGS (target of 172)
S. Jayasuriya c Marshall b Lawson 15
M. Atapattu c Ramdin b Lawson 28
K. Sangakkara c Joseph b Lawson 0
M. Jayawardena not out 41
T. Samaraweera lbw b Lawson 51
T. Dilshan not out 30
EXTRAS (LB-6, NB-3, W-1) 10
TOTAL (for four wkts, 38.3 overs) 175
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-34, 2-34, 3-49, 4-135
BOWLING: Powell 8-0-44-0, Lawson 12-2-43-4,
Best 8.3-1-40-0, Banks 7-0-31-0,
Smith 3-1-11-0.
UMPIRES: Simon Taufel (AUS) and Nadeem Ghauri (PAK)
TV UMPIRE: Peter Manuel (SRI)
MATCH REFEREE: Mike Procter (RSA)
SRI LANKA won by six wickets to lead 1-0 in two-match series
SECOND TEST: Kandy on July 22
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