Sangakkara, Samaraweera slay bowling: Windies get foretaste of things to come

by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka Cricket XI gave a foretaste of what West Indies can expect for the upcoming two-Test series when they rattled off an impressive 382 all out on the final day of the two-day practice match played at the NCC grounds yesterday.

Kumar Sangakkara hit a brilliant century and Tilan Samaraweera 95 as they made mincemeat of the depleted West Indies bowling to play themselves into form ahead of Wednesday's first Test at the SSC grounds. West Indies shot out for 110 on the first day had fared slightly better to be 109 for four wickets when the match ended in a draw.

Skipper Marvan Atapattu did not add to his overnight total of 77 when he failed to resume his innings yesterday suffering from high temperature. Team manager Michael Tissera said that he had gone to see a physician and has been advised rest.

But his absence was hardly felt when Sangakkara joined by Samaraweera tore into the bowling to add 154 runs for the second wicket in 148 minutes. The bowling troubled none of the batsmen with only Tino Best causing a few anxious moments with his exceptional pace. Best is West Indies' best prospect along with Jermaine Lawson of upsetting the Sri Lankan batting line-up. On their day and given the conditions they could prove a handful.

The pair dominated the morning session adding 113 runs off 26 overs and then carried on benefiting from fielding lapses as both batsmen enjoyed 'lives'. Sangakkara was dropped on the leg side by wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin off Best at 88 and Morton missed Samaraweera at slip off Banks at 45. These losses against a weakened bowling attack proved costly for West Indies.

Sangakkara in his element cut and drove with ease and he even used his feet to the spinners to come down the track to either smote the spin or find the gaps for runs.

He brought up his century in a grand manner by pulling Best over backward square leg for six. He had then faced 137 balls and hit 12 fours and one six. But at 109 he was beaten by a flighted delivery from Banks and was stumped by Ramdin.

Banks went onto capture two further wickets trapping Lokuarachchi lbw on the sweep for six and Herath caught by Best at extra cover for 10.

Banks who came onto bowl in the 12th over of the day was given a lengthy spell of 23 overs by skipper Chanderpaul from which he took five wickets for 95 runs.

Of the Sri Lankan Test players included in this game to gain practice ahead of the Test, only Mahela Jayawardene missed out on a chance of playing a lengthy innings in the middle. He lasted just eight balls before pulling a short ball from Best to short square leg's hands to be dismissed without scoring. Jayawardene stood his ground contemplating the whether the catch was taken fairly, but the umpire ruled him out.

Samaraweera fell short of a century by five runs when he tried a shot quite out of his repertoire - a reverse sweep and was trapped lbw by Banks. Samaraweera batted four hours and hit eight fours.

The rest of the batting hardly offered any resistance as Banks, renowned for his batting skills for guiding West Indies to a historic victory over Australia (chasing the highest fourth innings total of 418) swept through to record figures of six for 146 off 37 overs, a performance which would have given not only him but the entire West Indies contingent immense satisfaction.

Disappointments continued to pile up for West Indies as Ryan Ramdas could not take the field after hurting his left shoulder while batting on the first day. With Narasingh Deonarine suffering from 'flu and being overlooked for this game, the West Indies already had Lawson and Daren Powell (who were rested for this game) out on the field as substitutes.

When Dwayne Smith was forced to go off the field in mid-afternoon with a bruised right finger attempting to stop a powerful drive from Samaraweera off his bowling, and Lawson came off feeling out of sorts, West Indies were forced to pull out one of their men from the seven-member operations unit accompanying the team on tour.

The honour if that is the right word to use, fell on Imran Khan, the team's energetic media officer who donned whites and fielded for the rest of the innings.

WEST  INDIES 1ST INNINGS 110 
SRI  LANKA CRICKET XI 1ST INNINGS (overnight  152-1) 

M.S.  Atapattu retd hurt             		77 
W.U.  Tharanga lbw b Banks             		41 
K.C.  Sangakkara st Ramdin b Banks    		109 
D.P.M. Jayawardene c Smith b Best             	0 
T.T.  Samaraweera lbw b Banks             	95 
G.T.  de Silva c Best b Morton             	6           
K.S.  Lokuarachchi lbw b Banks             	6 
H.M.R.K.B. Herath c Best b Banks    		10 
M.M.T. Thushara c Ramdin b Banks    		6 
P.S.  Jayaprakashdaran c Ramdin b Best      	2 
R.A.C.G. Jayaweera not out        		0 
EXTRAS (b-17, nb-13)   	30 
TOTAL  (all out, 94.3 overs, 438 mins)          382 
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-96, 2-157, 3-311, 4-338, 5-347, 6-365, 
7-377, 8-380, 9-382.  
Bowling: Best 17.3-2-69-2 (6nb), Jeremy 19-3-83-0 (2nb), 
Butler 13-1-49-0 (5nb), Banks 37-2-146-6, Smith 1.5-0-6-0, 
Morton 6.1-0-12-1.

WEST INDIES 2ND INNINGS

X.M. Marshall c Jayaprakashdaran b Jayaweera 	43
S.C. Joseph c De Silva b Jayaprakashdaran        0
R.S. Morton st De Silva b Lokuarachchi           23
S. Chanderpaul c sub (Kapugedera) b Jayaweera	10
D. Ramdin not out           			17
O.A.C. Banks not out     			9
EXTRAS (lb-1, nb-6)       			7
TOTAL (4 wkts at stumps, 32 overs, 129 mins)    109  
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-3, 2-65, 3-77, 4-84. 
Bowling: Thushara 8-2-27-0 (3nb), 
Jayaprakashdaran 6-0-24-1 (1nb), Jayaweera 6-1-34-2 (1nb), 
Lokuarachchi 10-2-19-1 (1nb), Sangakkara 2-1-4-0.