Archives

by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Spearheaded by the off-spin of Muttiah Muralitharan who finished with a match bag of eight wickets, Sri Lanka completed a convincing innings and 166 runs victory over Zimbabwe in the final session of the fourth day of the first cricket Test at the SSC grounds yesterday, to go one-up in the three-Test series.

Zimbabwe facing a massive second innings deficit of 402 runs put up a better batting performance than in their first innings, but the odds were heavily stacked against them and they were finally dismissed for 236 with Chaminda Vaas taking the final wicket by having last man Henry Olonga caught behind by man-of-the-match Kumar Sangakkara without scoring.

Sangakkara edged out his Kandy colleague Muralitharan for the award for his contribution of 128 which was the highest individual score of the match. He also held three catches. Sri Lanka in somewhat lucky to win yesterday which has given them something to celebrate the New Year with. For 20 minutes after Zimbabwe were all out, the rains came in and had the Zimbabwe innings stalled at that point, they would have had to come back to put the finishing touches on New Year's day today.

Zimbabwe made 184 in the first innings and Sri Lanka scored 586 for six declared.

The win was Sri Lanka's sixth in a row (four of them at SSC) and constituted some kind of a record for no team in the subcontinent has had such a successful run in Test matches. It was also Sri Lanka's biggest margin of victory beating the previous one of innings and 137 runs against Bangladesh on the same ground in September this year. Muralitharan finished with four wickets for 35 runs off 36 overs to take his tally to 80 wickets in 11 Tests and become the leading bowler for the 2001 calendar year. He missed out on the world record of 85 wickets in calendar year held by former Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee.

Rain also interrupted the proceedings shortly before tea cutting off nearly an hour's play but Sri Lanka were not to be denied their victory on a flat bed SSC pitch which the Zimbabwean batsmen failed to make use of.

The highest individual score for Zimbabwe in the Test was made by nightwatchman Travis Friend who scored 44 in 176 minutes. Heath Streak was the second highest scorer in the second innings with an unbeaten 36.

The second new ball taken after 97 overs at 217 for 8 brought a swift end to the Zimbabwe innings with Nuwan Zoysa having Gary Brent caught at first slip by Sanath Jayasuriya and then Vaas picking up the wicket of Olonga. Muralitharan ended Friend's resistance when he bowled him with the Zimbabwe score on 145. Friend had six fours. Then, coming back for his third spell from the opposite end, Muralitharan had Grant Flower caught off his glove by Hashan Tillakaratne at forward short leg for 18, reducing Zimbabwe to 165 for seven.

Zimbabwe lost three important wickets including that of Andy Flower on the fourth morning when they resumed at 64 for two after Sunday's rest day.

Captain Stuart Carlisle went in the first over after the first drinks for the day, when he attempted an ambitious cut off medium-pacer Buddhika Fernando and edged an easy catch behind the wicket to Kumar Sangakkara.

Carlisle made 32 and Zimbabwe lost the wicket at 93.

Fernando also dismissed Gavin Rennie for four when he forced him to edge a catch to Mahela Jayawardene at second slip with 12 runs added to the total.

Fernando had a fine morning spell of two for 17 off six overs.

Lanky left-arm fast bowler Nuwan Zoysa picked up the prize wicket of Andy Flower for 10 shortly before lunch when he trapped him in front of the wicket with a straight ball.

Friend showed the kind of resistance that Zimbabwe needed to save the match batting throughout the morning session for 36.

SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS 586-6 decl. (S. Jayasuriya 92, K. Sangakkara 128, H. Tillakaratne 96, T. Samaraweera not out 123)

ZIMBABWE - 1ST INNINGS 184 (M. Muralitharan four for 53)


ZIMBABWE - 2ND INNINGS (overnight 64-2)

H. Masakadza c Atapattu b Muralitharan	28
T. Gripper c Sangakkara b Muralitharan	10
S. Carlisle c Sangakkara b Fernando	32
T. Friend b Muralitharan		44
G. Rennie c Jayawardene b Fernando	 4
A. Flower lbw b Zoysa			10
G. Flower c Tillakaratne b Muralitharan	18
C. Wishart c Tillakaratne b Samaraweera	27
H. Streak not out			36
G. Brent c Jayasuriya b Zoysa		 7
H. Olonga c Sangakkara b Vaas		 0
Extras (B-4, LB-7, NB-9)		20 
TOTAL (all out, 101.2 overs)	       236
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-40, 2-58, 3-93, 4-105, 
5-127, 6-145, 7-165, 8-197, 9-235, 10-236.
BOWLING: Vaas 21.2-6-76-1 (2NB), 
Zoysa 15-4-34-2 (2NB), Fernando 15-3-48-2 
(1 NB), Muralitharan 36-17-35-4, 
Jayasuriya 7-3-22-0, Samaraweera 7-2-10-1 (4NB).
Umpires: P. Manuel 
(Sri Lanka) and Riazuddin (Pakistan), 
TV umpire. T.H. Wijewardene (Sri Lanka), 
Match Referee: C.W. Smith (West Indies).
Result: Sri Lanka won by an innings and 166 runs.
Man of the Match: K. Sangakkara.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager