Sangakkara century puts Sri Lanka in control

Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Kandy

KANDY, Sunday - Inspired by Kumar Sangakkara's eighth Test hundred Sri Lanka virtually batted West Indies out of the second cricket Test at the Asgiriya International Stadium here today.

By stumps on a rain interrupted third day, Sri Lanka had taken their second innings total to an imposing 340 for seven wickets, an overall lead of 342 with three wickets intact and two days remaining.

Following the shoddy displays of batting put up by both sides in their first innings, today's play bordered on what Test cricket is all about.

The man who held center stage was 27-year-old Sangakkara who bashed the West Indian bowling to all parts of the Asgiriya Stadium to complete his first Test hundred on his home ground.

In 14 attempts Sangakkara had come close to a century at Kandy only once. That was when he scored 95 against England in 2000-01. Today he remained unconquered at the close on 135 having batted 374 minutes and faced 266 balls, which was inclusive of 19 scorching boundaries.

Considering the nature of the pitch, it was a great knock from Sangakkara which should be right up there with his best one's. He never let his concentration flag despite the fact that play was interrupted on three occasions for rain.

Sangakkara batted with a purpose and seemed like a man hell bent to prove a point. Perhaps he was smarting from being overlooked as wicket-keeper/batsman for the World Test team against Australia (where South Africa's Mark Boucher and New Zealand's Brendon McCullum were preferred).

Whatever the reasons Kandy saw Sangakkara at his best. His innings helped brighten a gloomy day where most of the play took place under cloudy skies with the sun hardly making an appearance.

To see Sangakkara celebrating his century in front of his parents and wife by punching the air with joy was a sight to behold. Not content with just getting a hundred Sangakkara continued to plunder runs at will to knock the hapless West Indies bowlers into submission.

The nearest he came to being dismissed was at the start of the day when he glanced Runako Morton off his legs dangerously close to wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin's gloves for a boundary to reach his half-century off 84 balls (8 fours), otherwise it was an innings without blemish.

Mahela Jayawardene (43) and Tillakaratne Dilshan (49) forged useful partnerships with Sangakkara as Sri Lanka gradually took the game away from the West Indians. Jayawardene helped him add 98 for the third wicket and Dilshan a further 109 for the fifth after West Indies had made two early breakthroughs via Lawson who dismissed Jayawardene and Tilan Samaraweera in his first over of the day.

Chaminda Vaas (19) piled on more frustration on the West Indies by figuring in a 43-run stand for the seventh wicket.

Sangakkara and Dilshan weathered some hostile bowling from the West Indies pace trio Lawson, Darren Powell and Tino Best to add build on their partnership. Best especially was aggressive bowling a beamer at Sangakkara, which went for four runs eluding even the wicket-keeper. The umpire warned him. In his next over, Dilshan swatted him for 14 runs inclusive of three consecutive fours on the off side, which forced skipper Chanderpaul to remove him from the attack.

SRI LANKA 1ST INNINGS 150 WEST INDIES 1ST INNINGS 148 SRI LANKA 2ND INNINGS (Overnight 146-2) S.T. Jayasuriya c Morton b Lawson 36 M.S. Atapattu c Banks b Powell 19 K.C. Sangakkara not out 135 D.P.M. Jayawardene b Lawson 43 T.T. Samaraweera c Ramdin b Lawson 0 T.M. Dilshan c Morton b Banks 49 M.R.G. Wijekoon b Powell 12 W.P.U.J.C. Vaas b Banks 19 H.M.R.K.B. Herath not out 4 Extras (b-4, lb-5, nb-8, w-6) 23 TOTAL (7 wkts at close, 98 overs, 429 mins) 340 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-55 (Atapattu), 2-57 (Jayasuriya), 3-155 (Jayawardene), 4-155 (Samaraweera), 5-264 (Dilshan), 6-278 (Wijekoon), 7-321 (Vaas). BOWLING: Powell 27-4-79-2 (1w), Lawson 25-1-93-3, Best 19-2-79-0 (5w, 6nb), Banks 16-5-39-2, Deonarine 3-0-13-0, Morton 5-0-15-0 (2nb), Chanderpaul 3-1-13-0.