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by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

The imperious Brian Lara scored his second big century of the series and passed 7,000 runs in Test cricket as he guided West Indies towards a big total on the first day of the third and final cricket Test against Sri Lanka at the Sinhalese SC grounds yesterday.

Choosing to bat first on a placid batting pitch, West Indies fighting to save off a three-nil whitewash in the series, finished the day strongly placed at 327 for three wickets with Lara unbeaten on 178. Sri Lanka were in the game only for the first 33 minutes of the day, when Chaminda Vaas snapped up openers Darren Ganga and Chris Gayle for 17 in his first spell of seven overs.

Gayle was caught behind off the fourth ball without scoring and Ganga was trapped lbw for six. After that it was all Lara for the rest of the day as he took on the nemesis for West Indies in the series Muttiah Muralitharan for most of the strike and denied the spinner of any wicket. In fact, Muralitharan went wicketless after 32 overs conceding 98 runs.

The exciting left-hander from Trinidad paced out his innings beautifully to strike 20 fours and a six in a stay of -337 minutes during which period he faced 285 balls.

Lara completed his 17th Test hundred with a single to short mid wicket in 187 minutes and 159 balls and had hit 12 fours at that time. He lost his partner Ramnaresh Sarwan at 211 when he called for a sharp single after playing the ball to cover point, and Mahela Jayawardene with only one stump to aim at threw it down with Sarwan way short of his crease.

The wicket which fell in the second over after tea, ended a record third wicket partnership between Sarwan and Lara of 194 in 213 minutes. The previous highest partnership for the series was 162 for the third wicket between Sri Lankan pair Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene in the Galle Test of the current series.

Sarwan who batted with some discomfort after being hit on the back of his head when he ran into a throw, faced 162 balls and hit 10 fours in his knock of 69. Lara taking the responsibility for the run out then cut loose as he race to the third fifty of his innings taking only 68 balls. He hit seven fours and a six in that period.

At 130, Lara became the sixth West Indian and the 22nd batsman in the world to pass 7,000 Test runs. Viv Richards (8540 runs), Gary Sobers (8032), Gordon Greenidge (7558), Clive Lloyd (7515) and Desmond Haynes (7487) are the other West Indians to reach the landmark.

Lara who scored 178 in the first Test at Galle took his aggregate in the current series past the 500-run mark during his sterling knock. Skipper Carl Hooper helped Lara raise 116 for the fourth wicket being unbeaten on 52 at the close. He completed his second half-century of the series in 102 minutes off 62 balls with eight fours.

Sri Lanka used eight bowlers in an effort to dislodge Lara whose innings so far is free of any error. It was a similar situation the West Indies were placed in the first Test at Galle when they finished the first day at 316 for 3 with Lara unbeaten on 117,and collapsed to 448 all out with Murlitharan taking six wickets.

Hooper did not discount the possibility of it happening again and said that they must guard against it.

The West Indies team were encouraged by the presence of their Cricket Board president Wes Hall who was a witness to the day's play.

WEST INDIES 1ST INNINGS

D. Ganga lbw b Vaas     		  6
C. Gayle c Sangakkara b Vaas    	  0
R. Sarwan run out       		 69
B. Lara not out 			178
C. Hooper not out       		 52
Extras (b-5, lb-7, nb-10)       	 22
Total  (3 wkts at close, 90 overs)      327

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-17, 3-211.
To bat: 
M. Samuels, R. Jacobs, M.Dillon, D. Ramnarine, M. Black,
P.Collins.
Bowling: Vaas 22-2-92-2 (6nb), Zoysa 12-1-37-0 (2nb),
Samaraweera 8-0-31-0 (2nb), Bandaratillake 9-2-37-0,
Muralitharan 32-4-98-0, Jayasuriya 3-0-11-0,
Arnold 3-0-8-0,  Tillakaratne 1-0-1-0.

SRI LANKA: S. Jayasuriya, M. Atapattu, K. Sangakkara,
M. Jayawardene, R. Arnold, H. Tillakaratne, T.Samaraweera,
C.Vaas, N. Bandaratillake, N. Zoysa, M. Muralitharan.

Umpires:
E.A.R. de Silva (Sri Lanka),R.B.Tiffin (Zimbabwe),
Match  Referee:
Raman Subba Row (England).

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