West Indies strike early blows

Sri Lanka 84 for 3:

Elmo Rodrigopulle from the R Premadasa Stadium,Tuesday

Winning the toss and batting first on a wicket that was not conducive to stroke making Sri Lanka made 84 for the loss of 3 wickets in 166 minutes of play in 37.2 overs when bad light stopped play on the first day of the Second Test against the West Indies at the R.Premadasa Stadium, yesterday.

After losing 3 wickets for 34, Kumar Sangakkara and Thilan Samaraweera steadied the innings putting on 50 runs. At the time play was stopped Sangakkara was on 25 and Samaraweera on 26. Kemar Roach had 2 for 24.

With the Windies pacemen Kemar Roach, Darren Sammy and Dwaynne Bravo bowling good line and length and working up tremendous pace, it was a struggle for survival and runs. Roach had two early wickets when he bowled Dilshan with a snorter for 4 at 10 and had Paranavithane well taken by Dwaynne Bravo at slip with an outer for 16 at 31. Three runs later Sammy who shared the new ball with Roach bowled Mahela Jayawardena through the gate for 2. Play was delayed by 110 minutes because overnight rain had made some areas on the ground soggy and the umpires after two inspections - one at 10.30 and the other at 11.30 a.m. decided to start play at 12.30 p.m.

The Sri Lankans made three changes. Omitted were pacemen Dhammika Prasad, Thilana Thusara and off spinner Suraj Randiv. In came Suranga Lakmal who was making his debut, Rangana Herath and Nuwan Kulasekera.

The West Indies made one change bringing in left arm spinner Suleiman Benn and leaving out Andree Russel.

		SCORECARD
	SRI LANKA 1ST INNINGS

T. Paranavitana c Dwayne Bravo b Roach 	 16
T. Dilshan b Roach 			 04
K. Sangakkara not out 			 25
M. Jayawardene b Sammy 			 02
T. Samaraweera not out 			 26
Extras (b1, lb4, nb1, w5) 		 11
Total (for three wickets;37.2 overs)	 84
Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-31, 3-34.
Bowling: Roach 10-4-24-2, Sammy 17-6-25-1 (nb1), Dwayne Bravo 7.2-3-21-0 
		(w5), Benn 3-1-9-0.