Cricket Update: http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758--a beautifully poised match
Before the Sri Lankan tour, West Indian cricket was facing a huge crisis, as the senior players had a dispute with the WICB, regarding the central contracts. Dispute with the players stretched to such an extent, that WICB had to change Chris Gayle as the captain of the national team, and instead it appointed a relatively less experienced Darren Sammy, to lead the West Indies against.
When the West Indian team arrived in Sri Lanka, there was a general assumption in the cricketing world that they would be swept away by a strong Sri Lankan team which is improving every single day. However, this was not the case, especially in the 1st test between the 2 sides, where surprisingly West Indies had an upper hand throughout the 5 days of the drawn match. The result could have been much different had the weather not interrupted frequently. But the West Indian show was primarily based on the heroics of Chris Gayle, who scored the second triple hundred of his career with an amazing strike-rate.
On the other hand, Sri Lanka was back from a successful tour down-under, where they defeated the Aussies in the T20 and the ODI series as-well. But still Sri Lanka had a point to prove as they were playing a test series at home, for the first time after the retirement of their legendary off-spinner http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Muttiah-Muralitharan-c78157, who has been influential in Sri Lankan team’s success in the last decade.
Rain delayed the start of the 2nd test between the 2 sides, which is underway at, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Russell-c87177.On the contrary, Sri Lanka made three changes. All of these changes were in their bowling department, which was quite helpless against Chris Gayle in the 1st test. Randiv, Prasad and Thushara made way for Kulasekra, Herath and Lakmal, who is making his test debut.R Premadasa Stadium, Colombo
The decision by Sangakara to bat first did not prove to be a good one, at least on day one, as Roach and Sammy made early inroads in the Sri Lankan top-order. Dilshan was first to go, when Roach bowled him on a full in-ducker as he played inside the line of the ball. Roach quickly wrapped-up, Paranavitana’s stay at the crease as-well, when he had him caught in the second slip by Bravo. The big wicket of Mahela Jayawardene was taken by the West Indian captain, Darren Sammy, when he was bowled of an inside edge. At that time Sri Lanka was struggling at 34 for 3, when the ever reliable Sangakara and the test specialist Samaraweera steadied the Sri Lankan ship, before the bad light stopped play once again. Sri Lanka was at 84, for the loss of three wickets, on day one. The clash is beautifully poised for day two and hopefully more action is yet to come.
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