Ramnaresh Sarwan’s hard fought century helped West Indies draw the series against Sri Lanka. He shared a partnership of 157 with Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who was unbeaten on 86 at the end.
It was important for the Islanders not to fall too far behind in the rankings, they lie second from bottom, 20 points below New Zealand. In recent years they have had trouble securing results, but not at the Queen’s Park Oval yesterday.
Sri Lanka had scored 278, Chamara Silva top scoring with 76. Fidel Edwards impressed with 4 wickets, especially in a devastating spell, removing the top three. In response the Windies grabbed a lead of 16, Sarwan hitting his third consecutive half-century, but no-one really went on. Needless to say Mutiah Muralitharan got himself another five wicket haul.
Early wickets cost Sri Lankan dear in their second innings. They were always struggling at 32/4, and when Silva was dismissed with the score at 99/6 the test match seemed close to conclusion. However Thilan Samaraweera had other ideas. His 125 gave Sri Lanka a chance, with Chaminda Vaas offering valuable support.
A target of 253 was set, which is neither expected or comfortable.
They would have been confident after the Windies slumped to 73/3, but a combination of the brilliant batting of Sarwan, and the inexperienced bowling of Thilan Thushara and Ishara Amerasinghe took the game West Indies way.
Vaas and Muralitharan consistently built pressure, but the other bowlers released it by bowling the wrong line and length. In truth, had Dilhara Fernando and Lasith Malinga been present, Sri Lanka would probably have flown out of Trinidad with their first test series win in the West Indies.
1 Comment
April 8, 2008 at 11:34 am
Is this the time when Sarwan finally fulfills the obvious potential he has? His career has been much in the shadow of Lara, but with him gone, without the strains of captaincy and fully recovered from injury, we could start to see the best of this young man.
A great win for the windies but theyve got Australia next. Oh dear!