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West Indies v Sri Lanka, 2nd Test, Trinidad, 2nd day
West Indies fight hard for control
The Bulletin by George Binoy
April 4, 2008
West Indies 268 for 7 (Sarwan 57, Muralitharan 3-64) trail Sri Lanka 278 (Silva 76, Dilshan 62, Edwards 4-84) by 10 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
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Chamara Silva top scored for Sri Lanka with a vital 76
© AFP
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Sri Lanka and West Indies fought hard to try and gain the upper hand but the second day's play at the Queen's Park Oval ended with neither team earning a decisive advantage. The battle for the first-innings lead was closely contested and West Indies finished ten runs short of Sri Lanka's 278 with three wickets in hand.
West Indies had the better of the first two sessions and by tea they were superbly placed to go past Sri Lanka. Their bowlers had managed to winkle out Sri Lanka's last five wickets for 61 runs and their top three batsmen - Ramnaresh Sarwan's 57 was the highlight - made useful contributions to steer West Indies to 133 for 1. However, Sri Lanka put the skids on the scoring rate after tea and Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas had the batsmen under immense pressure. The result was that West Indies lost six wickets for 135 to bring the match back into balance.
However, it was an improved performance from West Indies after a wayward effort on the opening day. Tillakarate Dilshan had run them ragged on the first evening, cutting and pulling with abandon, and he began the same way by lashing Fidel Edwards to the point boundary. However, he played one shot too soon and miscued a pull off the third ball of the morning and Denesh Ramdin ran to square leg to take the catch. Vaas too fell to a top-edged hook, which was once again held by Ramdin.
A lull followed as Sri Lanka went 21 balls without scoring before Silva - running out of partners - accelerated, flicking Edwards to the fine-leg boundary before bringing up his fifty with a scorching cut. Thilan Thushara stuck around for 21 deliveries before a direct hit from Sarwan caught him short. Muralitharan, however, lasted only three balls. He top edged his first ball over the wicketkeeper, slogged the second over midwicket and sliced his next to third man where Dwayne Bravo judged the catch to perfection.
With the No. 11 for company, Silva tried to score at a brisk rate and West Indies could have ended the innings on 267 but Jerome Taylor dropped a simple caught-and-bowled. A meandering passage of play followed with Silva refusing singles and trying to shield Ishara Amerasinghe from the strike. As West Indies strived to end the partnership, Taylor sent down a beamer to Silva and had to be taken out of the attack because he had already bowled one at Dilshan on day one. Sri Lanka's innings ended via another top-edged pull from Silva and Daren Powell held a well-judged catch at long-leg.
There was doubt over whether Chris Gayle would open given his troubles against Vaas and he ended the speculation by coming out with the debutant Sewnarine Chattergoon. Vaas troubled both left-handers with the ball that seamed away off the pitch but there was no pressure from the other end. Gayle took on Amerasinghe, clipping him off the back foot to the midwicket boundary and pulling past mid-on in his first over and clouted consecutive boundaries in his second before being dropped by Muralitharan at mid-on.
West Indies scored 49 before the lunch break but lost Gayle for 45 soon after the resumption when he steered Thushara straight to gully. Gayle had been doing most of the scoring but there was no let up in momentum because Sarwan batted aggressively from the start. He began with a fierce cut to third man and concentrated on playing the inswingers from Vaas late, using the movement into him to push the ball through the leg side. He was also strong through the off, cover-driving to bring up the 100 in only the 18th over.
While Sarwan began at nearly a run-a-ball, Chattergoon started his innings patiently. He didn't try anything fancy and focused on rotating the strike with Gayle and Sarwan. His first boundary came via an upper cut over the slips and he then steered Vaas through point. Even Muralithraran, who was introduced in the 19th over, failed to make a breakthrough as the batsmen kept taking singles, maintaining a run-rate over four. West Indies were 133 for 1 when rain forced the umpires to take tea early and the tide turned after play resumed.
Vaas ended the 79-run stand by bowling Chattergoon (46) with one that straightened off the pitch to clip the top of off stump, after which Muralithraran picked up his first wicket, trapping Marlon Samuels lbw for 3 to reduce West Indies to 141 for 3. Sarwan remained firm and kept runs flowing with frequent boundaries: the two cover drives off Vaas and the straight drive off Murali to bring up his fifty stood out. However, he eventually clipped Murali off his pads into the hands of Malinda Warnapura at leg gully.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul failed to make an impact, falling leg-before to Thushara but Devon Smith and Bravo batted sensibly to take their team closer to Sri Lanka's total. Smith started quietly, scoring 4 off 26 balls, before opening out with consecutive drives off Thushara.
Murali was now in full flow and there were several appeals as Smith and Bravo struggled to read him. He eventually broke through Smith's defences with a doosra, a wicket which exposed West Indies' tail when they were within touching distance of Sri Lanka's first-innings total.
George Binoy is a staff writer at Cricinfo
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