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by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Chaminda Vaas, Sri Lanka's left-arm fast-medium bowler produced his best bowling performance in Test cricket to run through the West Indies batting on the second day of the third and final cricket Test at the SSC grounds yesterday.

Vaas took seven for 120 off 32.2 overs as West Indies plunged from an imposing 347 for three at one stage to 390 all out in the first over after lunch. Sri Lanka replied with 193 for three wickets with skipper Sanath Jayasuriya setting the tone for the innings with a sedate 85 in 232 minutes off 166 balls.

He hit one six and nine fours and shared in stands of 99 with Kumar Sangakkara (55 with six fours) and 75 with Mahela Jayawardene, who was on 32 at the close.

Russel Arnold was batting with him on 10 and Sri Lanka will be looking to build on a big total here to put the West Indies under pressure on the fourth day.

Sri Lanka lost Marvan Atapattu as early as the second over when he edged an outswinger from Pedro Collins to Chris Gayle at third slip to be dismissed for four. The West Indies collapse was all too familiar throughout the series and it reflected greatly on Brian Lara's contribution to the team. His monumental knock of 221 was made in a 447 minutes off 354 balls with 23 fours and a six. It was the fourth time in his career he had gone past the 200 mark. Lara also became the first overseas player to score a Test double hundred in Sri Lanka.

The previous highest by an overseas player here was 180 by New Zealander John Reid at the CCC grounds in 1983-84. It took a cleverly disguised off-cutter from Vaas to end his innings, as he played onto the delivery. Lara has been the backbone to the West Indies batting scoring 558 runs in the series (avg. 111.60) from five innings. Without him the West Indies batting would have been nothing. Of the 63 runs the West Indies added to their overnight total of 327 for three, Lara's contribution was 43 which means the other seven batsmen contributed just 16 runs (4 extras) which is a poor reflection on the part of the others after all the talking skipper Carl Hooper had with his players of playing an innings around Lara. The only ones to do so were Ramnaraine Sarwan and Hooper who together in partnerships with Lara contributed 330 runs to the total.

When Lara scored West Indies prospered. But yesterday's collapse was even worse than the one at Galle because according to Hooper and Lara at the end of the first day, the SSC pitch was a better batting strip than at Galle. Lara even went to the extent of saying that a safer total on Sri Lankan pitches was 600.

West Indies didn't achieve that because of one man Vaas. The 27-year-old who has been the spearhead of the Sri Lankan attack for the past seven years bowled superbly maintaining a consistent line and length and making little variations to keep the batsmen guessing all the time. If it was Vaas with the old ball who did the damage at Kandy, it was Vaas with the new ball at the SSC. Armed with the second new ball, he ripped through the West Indies middle order batting to take five for 28 in 10.2 overs. That three of his victims got out leg before wicket emphasises the accuracy of him bowling wicket to wicket.

It was the sixth occasion that Vaas had taken five wickets in an innings and his figures improved on his previous best in Tests which was six for 73 against England at the same venue in March this year. For once Muttiah Muraliltharan was out of the limelight in the bowling honours.

He took a solitary wicket for 115 runs off 37 overs and may yet play a leading part in the West Indies second innings.

WEST INDIES - 1ST INNINGS
         (overnight 327-3)

D. Ganga lbw b Vaas			  6
C. Gayle c Sangakkara b Vaas		  0
R. Sarwan run out			 69
B. Lara b Vaas				221
C. Hooper lbw b Vaas			 56
M. Samuels lbw b Vaas			  4
R. Jacobs b Zoysa			  2
M. Dillon lbw b Vaas			  2
D. Ramnarine c Jayawardene
b Muralitharan				  0
P. Collins c Samaraweera b  Vaas	  4
M. Black not out			  0
Extras (B-5, LB-7, NB-14)		 26
TOTAL  (all out, 113.2 overs)		390

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-2, 2-17, 3-211, 4-347, 5-359,
6-368, 7-376, 8-385, 9-389, 10-390.

BOWLING: 
Vaas 32.2-5-120-7 (NB-10), Zoysa 20-4-55-1 (NB-2),
Samaraweera 8-0-31-0 (NB-2), Bandaratillake 9-2-37-0,
Muralitharan 37-6-115-1, Jayasuriya 3-0-11-0, 
Arnold 3-0-8-0, Tillakaratne 1-0-1-0.

SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS

M. Atapattu c Gayle b Collins		  4
S. Jayasuriya c Ramnarine b Black	 85
K. Sangakkara c Gayle b Dillon		 55
M. Jayawardene not out			 32
R. Arnold not out			 10
Extras (B-1, LB-5, NB-1)		  7
TOTAL (3 wkts at close, 59 overs)	193

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-5, 2-104, 3-179.

TO BAT:
H. Tillakaratne, T. Samaraweera, C. Vaas,
N. Bandaratillake, N. Zoysa, M. Muralitharan.

BOWLING: Dillon 15-3-47-1, Collins 16-1-49-1 (NB-1),
Black 11-1-38-1, Ramnarine 9-2-34-0, Hooper 8-2-19-0.

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

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