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| Tuesday, 18 May 2004 |
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Lanka perform final rites by inflicting heavy defeat Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Zimbabwe BULAWAYO, Monday - Sri Lanka performed the final rites on Zimbabwe inflicting on the home country their heaviest defeat in their history when they won the second and final cricket Test by an innings and 254 runs to complete a clean sweep of the two Test series at the Queens Sports Club grounds here today. The match ended just over an hour after lunch on the fourth day with Zimbabwe being dismissed in their second innings for 231 after trailing on the first innings by a massive 485 runs. Zimbabwe scored 228 in their first innings and Sri Lanka replied with 713 for three declared. Today's defeat was much heavier than the one Zimbabwe suffered in the first Test at Harare, which they lost inside three days by an innings and 240 runs. The only resistance Sri Lanka encountered was from the third wicket pair of Bruce Taylor and Dion Ebrahim. They hung around for 112 minutes adding 85 runs. But once Muttiah Muralitharan had Taylor caught off bat-pad at silly point by Mahela Jayawardene for 61 - his maiden Test fifty, the rest of the batting simply folded up despite a late flourish from the tail when 57 runs were added for the last two wickets. That Muralitharan finally ended up taking four wickets for 79 runs must have done him a world of good and kept his critics at arms length - many who would have believed that he would be ineffective on this batting pitch without bowling his outlawed 'doosra'. Muralitharan bowled off-breaks and top spinners and threw in a few leg breaks as well for good measure to finish with six wickets in the match. His 14 wickets in the series took his personal world record tally to 527 wickets from 90 Tests - 10 more than his nearest rival Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne who will be starting a two-Test series against Zimbabwe on May 22. Zimbabwe began the fourth day on 44-2 and progressed to 125 with 18-year-old Taylor reaching his maiden Test half-century in 144 minutes off 110 balls with six and four fours. He had a narrow escape at 51 when Dilshan at forward shortleg failed to grasp a bat-pad catch off Muralitharan. But for the youngster the pressure exerted by Sri Lanka proved too much with four men constantly around the bat. He finally succumbed to pressure and fell for 61 after resisting for 189 minutes. Skipper Tatenda Taibu missed before he had scored did not last long before he too went the same way as Taylor. When Jayasuriya consumed Ebrahim for 42 caught in the leg trap by Atapattu, half the Zimbabwe side was out for 143. Ebrahim slapped a one-Test ban for making uncomplimentary remarks at Muralitharan was given a tough time by the close in Sri Lankan fielders who rankled him during his 133 minutes in the middle. Maregwede and Chigumbura added 30 but Vaas returning for a new spell trapped Maregwede lbw for 28 and two balls later had Nkala edging a catch to third slip. When Muralitharan trapped Chigumbura lbw for12, Zimbabwe had lost three wickets without any addition to their total of 173, but promising fast bowler Tinashe Panyangara who held up Sri Lanka for a further 47 minutes delayed a swift end to the innings. With Mpariwa and Hondo, he raised the total by a further 58 runs before Jayasuriya and then Muralitharan finally put an end to the resistance. Panyangara finished unbeaten on 40 scored off 45 balls with the aid of six fours. Kumar Sangakkara who hit a career best 270 was named man of the match and Sri Lanka captain Marvan Atapattu who scored 170 and 249 in the two Tests took the man of the series award. ZIMBABWE 1ST INNINGS 228 (D.Ebrahim 70) SRI LANKA 1ST INNINGS 713-3 declared (K.Sangakkara 270, M.Atapattu 249, M.Jayawardene 100 not out) ZIMBABWE 2ND INNINGS (overnight 44-2) S.Matsikenyeri c P.Jayawardene b Zoysa 14 B.Taylor c M.Jayawardene b Muralitharan 61 M.Vermeulen c Muralitharan b Zoysa 6 D.Ebrahim c Atapattu b Jayasuriya 42 T.Taibu c Dilshan b Muralitharan 0 A.Maregwede lbw b Vaas 28 E.Chigumbura lbw b Muralitharan 12 M.Nkala c Dilshan b Vaas 0 T.Panyangara not out 40 T.Mupariwa c Vaas b Jayasuriya 14 D.Hondo c Atapattu b Muralitharan 3 EXTRAS (lb-7 nb-3 w-1) 11 TOTAL (all out, 75.1 overs) 231 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-22 2-40 3-125 4-127 5-143 6-173 7-173 8-173 9-204 BOWLING:Vaas 18-6-53-2 (nb-1), Zoysa 13-4-27-2, Muralitharan 28.1-6-79-4, Maharoof 6-0-32-0 (nb-2 w-1), Jayasuriya 10-0-33-2.
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