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By Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka are only one victory away from recording their first white-wash of a Test nation in a Test series when they meet West Indies in the third and final Test starting at the SSC grounds today.

Sri Lanka won the first Test at Galle by ten wickets and the second at Kandy by 131 runs and come to the SSC with their confidence as high as ever.

Skipper Sanath Jayasuriya reflecting the mood in the Sri Lankan camp said: "Our confidence is very high after the victory in Kandy. It was important we won in Kandy. We just want to continue doing what we've been doing in the last few games.

"The performances right throughout the series has been good. If we can continue the good form here, we will be able to achieve victory," he said.

Sri Lanka were in a similar situation against Pakistan in March last year when they won the first two Test comfortably to take a 2-0 lead, but a rejuvenated Pakistan side under a new captain (Moin Khan) and coach (Javed Miandad) turned tables on Sri Lanka to pull one back and save themselves the embarrassment of a 3-0 thrashing.

Whether West Indies can save face like the Pakistanis, depends largely on their in-form batsman Brian Lara and the support he gets from the others.

The brilliant left-hander has been outstanding, averaging 84.25 in the series with scores of 178, 40, 74 and 25. He has been the only batsman who has shown the capability to tackle the off-spin of Muttiah Muralitharan successfully and, West Indies captain Carl Hooper has not ruled out that option.

In fact the West Indies are looking to take a leaf out of Lara's book to stop Muralitharan from spinning them to another defeat. "Murali probably holds the upperhand right now. He's got us thinking about him after 21 wickets in the first two games," said Hooper.

"The only way to tackle him is when you watch Brian play. He has basically looked to score runs off him. The majority of us probably looked to defend a little bit more and perished. Maybe there is something we can take from Brian's batting.

"If you are batting with Brian at one end, you can pick up a few things.

But at the end of the day, most of us might not be able to bat as well as Brian. He has his own technique. So we've got to, when playing Test matches, know exactly what's happening outside and adjust accordingly," said Hooper.

"We have a lot of young guys here and they were shocked to see Muralitharan spin the ball so big with the one that goes the other way that's cleverly disguised. When they play him again probably they may be able to pick him and might know what to look for, and might have devised a way to be a bit more successful against him. This can only come with experience," he said.

"You've got to find a balance against world class bowlers. You got to be able to think in terms like what they are going to do to you and keep them thinking, so that they wouldn't be able to exploit and get everything tailor-made for them," Hooper said.

Hooper is hoping that his team can bounce back in the series like they did against South Africa at home last year. "We've shown that we can bounce back. The South Africans had us 2-0 down; we came back and won in Jamaica. But this is different, being away from home and the conditions are different," said Hooper.

"In that series we've had guys scoring runs, but in this series we have only one guy (Brian Lara) scoring runs consistently. It's a big axe; we've got what it takes to rise to the occasion.

"It will be nice if we can pull one back, but having said that, we will have to play good cricket to do that. The Sri Lankans have played some decent cricket and they probably be looking to make it 3-0. We have a lot to play for and we'll come out again tomorrow, fighting," he said.

"Whether we are playing for pride or for personal performances or places, is not important. This being a Test match is important. Whatever each individual can find to lift his game and make a significant contribution towards winning the Test match is important. We would welcome it. We haven't had a lot of outstanding performances in the two Test matches and, it is important that we get a few in this game.

"We've all struggled to score runs apart from Brian Lara. You could put it down to a number of reasons, but at the end of the day it is Test cricket.

We are up against a good side, with a world class spinner who is putting us under pressure," said Hooper.

Apart from being unable to put up big totals, West Indies also have an inexperienced bowling attack which has been unable to put pressure on the Sri Lankan batting.

Hooper admitted: "We haven't really got the strength in batting or bowling to put the Sri Lankans under pressure. We've struggled against their seamers and spinners".

"To think that Merv Dillon is our senior fast bowler who has played only 19 Tests is a good indication where we are at," said Hooper.

"They lack in experience. When you start coming to places like Sri Lanka, India and Australia you've got to adjust to situations quickly. We had two 3-day games and two back to back Test matches. If you've had a bad start you are going to struggle," he said.

By not touring the sub-continent often, West Indies have only compounded their problems. In the last decade they have been to the sub-continent only on four occasions (the current tour excluded), the last in 1997-98, when they lost 3-0 in Pakistan. "On a scale of one to 10 I think we have been playing at 4. You are going to play as well as the opposition allows you to play. If we can raise our game at least by 10 to 15 percent it will make us competitive against Sri Lanka. I don't think they are as good as the South Africans, but just that they've managed to put us under pressure and, they've got a world class bowler to exploit that," Hooper said.

West Indies may probably make one change to their bowling line up with Marlon Black replacing Colin Stuart, who had the shattering experience of being pulled out of the bowling attack for bowling two successive beamers in the Sri Lanka first innings at Kandy.

Sri Lanka are going into the final Test with an unchanged side and Jayasuriya stressed on the importance of retaining bowlers instead of chopping and changing them after one or two Tests.

We have to keep someone like (Niroshan) Bandaratillake playing, otherwise if we drop him for the next match we are not getting anywhere," said Jayasuriya. "Bandaratillake hasn't been in the team for a long time and he is just coming good at the moment. We have to keep playing him and see how he fares. He has to improve his game and he can do that only if he is playing at international level. We have to keep faith in Banda and keep playing him. He can turn the ball more than the other spinners we have tried," he said.

"We earlier had only Murali, now we have (Chaminda) Vaas as well. Both of them are bowling really well and Vaas is supporting Murali right throughout the series," Jayasuriya said.

Vaas is proving more than a handful to the West Indies batsmen who, apart from overcoming the wiles of Muralitharan have now his reverse swing to contend with.

Vaas' left-arm fast-medium pace has proved an ideal foil to Muralitharan.

His 12 wickets in the series so far have been taken at a cost of 17.58 and he has a strike rate of 42 balls per wicket.

The teams: 
Sri Lanka (from): Sanath Jayasuriya (captain), Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Russel Arnold, Hashan Tillakaratne, Tilan Samaraweera, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Muttiah Muralitharan, Niroshan Bandaratillake, Upul Chandana.

West Indies (from): Carl Hooper (captain), Chris Gayle, Darren Ganga, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Brian Lara, Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs, Mervyn Dillon, Dinanath Ramnarine, Pedro Collins, Marlon Black, Colin Stuart, Neil McGarrell.

Umpires: Asoka de Silva (Sri Lanka) and Russel Tiffin (Zimbabwe), TV umpire: Gamini Silva (Sri Lanka), 

Match Referee: Raman Subba Row (England). 

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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