Rangana Herath picked two wickets in the session © AFP (representational image)
West Indies have endured yet another poor session with their tally reaching 134 runs, albeit with the loss of five wickets. Early in the day Marlon Samuels fell to the turn of Rangana Herath bringing the aggressive Jermaine Blackwood to the crease. Blackwood initially sacrificed natural instincts to play a cautious knock but soon grew frustrated with that way of doing things and switched to his way without much success. After scoring just 11 runs he slashed at a back of a length ball outside off by Dhammika without footwork and found a thick edge to the debutant Siriwardana at first slip. FULL SCORECARD: Sri Lanka vs West Indies Day 2, 1st Test at Galle
It was then down to Denesh Ramdin and Darren Bravo to steady the ship. Bravo looked most steady of the lot of West Indian batsmen and his knock was full of poise, elegance blended with essential caution. He scored off a few flowing drives and also pulled the short stuff he was occasionally presented. However, he was careful not to tinker with the good balls and played those with the necessary element of respect. He got to his half century of the 105th delivery. UPDATES: Sri Lanka vs West Indies Day 2, 1st Test at Galle
However, much to his and his team’s horror he was dismissed by Herath just two balls later. This time major credit went to the fielder at short mid on, Dinesh Chandimal, who took a spectacular flying catch. Bravo was tempted by the tossed up ball outside off on a full length and tried to hit it big but he only got the inside half of the bat and it flew to Chandimal.
Following Bravo’s dismissal, skipper Jason Holder came to the crease to join Ramdin. Ramdin did not want to allow the bowlers to dominate him and occasionally stepped down to hit out but did not do the most attractive job with it. Nevertheless those two batsmen managed to see out the remaining overs and they’ll have a huge task for the following session if their to bring West Indies back in the contest. West Indies are still trailing by 350 runs and have a mere five wickets in hand.
Brief scores:
Sri Lanka 484 (Dimuth Karunaratne 186, Dinesh Chandimal 151, Angelo Mathews 48; Devendra Bishoo 4 for 143, Jerome Taylor 2 for 65) lead West Indies 134 for 5 (Shai Hope 23, Darren Bravo 50; Herath 4 for 24) by 350 runs.