Lanka hit back after another batting debacle

SA'ADI Thawfeeq reporting from Kandy

KANDY, Friday - Sri Lanka batsmen gave an abject display of batting to be skittled out for their lowest total against the West Indies on the opening day of the second cricket Test at the Asgiriya International Stadium here today.

Sent into bat first Sri Lanka hardly did any justice on a pitch which was not dangerous to bat on although certain balls shot off a good length to be shot out for 150 by the West Indies pace trio of Darren Powell, Tino Best and Jermaine Lawson.

More than Lawson and Best it was Powell who did the damage when he took a career best five for 25 off 13.1 overs, the first time the 27-year-old Jamaican had captured a five-for in his 12-Test career.

By stumps, Sri Lanka had hit back through Chaminda Vaas to have West Indies struggling at 92 for five wickets.

Powell began with the wicket of Sri Lanka's highest capped Test cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya in the third over and never looked back until he had captured the last wicket of Lasith Malinga three and a half hours later.

Not taking anything away from the West Indies quickies it would be pertinent enough to say that they were helped to a great extent by the injudicious stroke play of the batsmen.

Apart from the poor strokes the batsmen presented it was also poor cricket all-round when communication between Tilan Samaraweera and Tilakaratne Dilshan failed on the stroke of lunch that saw the latter run out for 36.

It was Samaraweera's call and he changed his mind after calling his partner for a run, which left him with no chance to beat bowler Best's direct hit to the wicket. That dismissal ended a run a minute 56-run liaison for the fifth wicket, which was the only productive partnership of the innings.

Samaraweera made 37 in 133 minutes before playing the ball into shortleg's hands to give spinner Banks the only wicket to fall to a spinner.

Sri Lanka's shoddy display must be a worrying factor for coach Tom Moody whose main objective is to build a successful team for the 2007 World Cup. The poor performance raises the question how good the batsmen are against fast bowling even under their own home conditions.

If Sri Lanka plan to carry out a successful World Cup campaign in the Caribbean, they should by now start doing their homework and get their top order batsmen used to playing quality fast short pitched bowling.

If they cannot put up with the pace of this second string West Indies side that are minus bowlers in the caliber of Corey Collymore and Fidel Edwards, one fear how they would perform on the fast and bouncy Caribbean pitches.

Thus it is no surprise that Sri Lanka have a very poor record outside home because of the batsmen's inability to counter fast bowling even on slow pitches.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul was fully justified in sending Sri Lanka to bat first after winning the toss.

To have them out for 150, two less than their lowest ever against West Indies at Antigua in 1997. But he must have been disappointed with the performance of his batsmen when they provided the home side with an initial breakthrough - a rather unnecessary run out that found Marshall and Ramdass at the same end.

Then Vaas, their tormentor at the SSC struck thrice in his opening spell of seven overs conceding 15 runs to reduce West Indies to 27-4. He then returned for a second spell later during the day to end a threatening fifth wicket stand of 48 between Sylvester Joseph and Narasingh Deonarine.

With an off colour Muralitharan still recovering from a viral flu, Vaas single-handedly provided the much needed thrust to the Sri Lankan bowling finishing the day with figures of four for 17 off 13 overs.

Black arm bands for Roshan

Sri Lankan players wore black arm bands as a mark of respect when news broke out that former Test leg-spinner Roshan Gunaratne had died at the age of 43 in the USA. Gunaratne's solitary Test appearance was against Greg Chappell's Australians at the Asgiriya Stadium in 1983.

SRI LANKA 1ST INNINGS 

M.S. Atapattu b Best  				17 
S.T. Jayasuriya c Ramdin b Powell  		02 
K.C. Sangakkara c Morton b Powell  		06 
D.P.M. Jayawardene c Morton b Best   		06 
T.T. Samaraweera c Deonarine b Banks  		37 
T.M. Dilshan run out  				36 
W.P.U.J.C. Vaas c Ramdass b Best   		06 
M.R.G. Wijekoon c Ramdass b Powell 		14 
H.M.R.K.B. Herath c Ramdin b Powell 		01 
M. Muralitharan not out  			18 
S.L. Malinga c Ramdin b Powell  		00
Extras (lb-6, nb-1)   				07
TOTAL (all out, 46.1 overs, 211 mins) 		150

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-3 (Jayasuriya), 2-17 (Sangakkara), 
3-35 (Atapattu), 4-42 (Jayawardene), 5-98 (Dilshan), 
6-107 (Vaas), 7-127 (Samaraweera), 8-130 (Herath), 
9-143 (Wijekoon), 10-150 (Malinga).

BOWLING: Powell 13.1-4-25-5, Lawson 10-0-29-0, 
Best 10-1-50-3 (1nb), Banks 13-1-40-1. 
 
WEST INDIES 1ST INNINGS 

X.M. Marshall c Atapattu b Vaas   		04 
R. Ramdass run out    				03 
R.S. Morton b Vaas   				01 
S. Chanderpaul lbw b Vaas       		13
S.C. Joseph c Dilshan b Vaas       		18
N. Deonarine not out  				36
D. Ramdin not out    				08
Extras (b-4, lb-1, nb-40       			09
TOTAL (5 wkts at close, 41 overs, 173 mins)	92

FALL OF WICKETS: 
1-9 (Ramdass), 2-9 (Marshall), 3-12 (Morton), 
4-27 (Chanderpaul), 5-75 (Joseph).TO BAT: O.A.C. Banks, 
D.B. Powell, T.L. Best, J.J.C. Lawson. 

BOWLING: Vaas 13-6-17-4, Malinga 9-3-22-0 (3nb), 
Wijekoon 5-2-9-0 (1nb), Muralitharan 3-0-12-0, 
Herath 9-0-26-0, Jayasuriya 2-1-1-0.