Published: Oct 17, 2015, 02:26 PM (IST)
Edited: Oct 17, 2015, 02:26 PM (IST)
Rangana Herath was the star as Sri Lanka just about managed to sneak an innings victory against West Indies on Day Four of the First Test at Galle. Jermaine Blackwood’s 92 threatened to deny Sri Lanka the joy of an innings victory but a ploy to place every fielder at the boundary for Blackwood who was rightfully unwilling to give strike to tailender Shanon Gabriel worked as Blackwood tried to go over the top but was caught at deep extra cover. It was a pitiful performance by West Indies for most part and they were clueless against the quality spin of Herath. LIVE CRICKET SCORECARD: Sri Lanka vs West Indies 2015, 1st Test at Galle, Day 4
Put in to bat first Sri Lanka scored 484 runs with Dinesh Chandimal and Dimuth Karunaratne getting big hundreds. They were assisted by some shoddy work in the field by the West Indians who squandered a few of both half and outright chances. Devendra Bishoo caused limited worries for the Lankan batsman. While he took four wickets he also conceded 143 runs. LIVE UPDATES: Sri Lanka vs West Indies 2015, 1st Test at Galle, Day 4
In their first innings West Indies managed a tame response of a mere 251 runs. Their top-scorer was Darren Bravo with a round fifty but the rest of the top order was indifferent in the way they threw away starts to bad shots. Herath capitalised on the frailties of the West Indian batsmen to take a fifer including the wicket of a well set Bravo.
After a minor consultation with his bowlers, skipper Angelo Mathews chose to enforce the follow on and the West Indian response in the second innings was even poorer. Kraigg Brathwaite showed promise with 34 runs but was dismissed by Herath lbw. Shai Hope endured another failure managing to score just six runs before chopping on a delivery from Siriwardana.
Bravo again attempted to score a steadying knock and for the duration of his 31-run knock West Indies had at least minor hope of giving something of a fightback but the batsmen was done in by the pace and excess bounce of a rising back of a length ball delivered by Nuwan Pradeep.
Marlon Samuels was dismissed with the most bizzare shot of the lot. He tried to leave a ball pitched just outside the line of off stump which was angling in by Herath only to see the ball crash his pads plumb in front of the off stump. The weirdness of the shot selection was eclipsed by his decision to review the call.
In the middle order only Blackwood was a bright spot playing his natural game and scoring runs off the wavering accuracy of Siriwardana and Tharindu Kaushal. He did not recieve adequate assistance from the other end as batsmen kept throwing wickets away. Ultimately he was dismissed eight shot of a hundred and six shot of making Sri Lanka bat again.
Brief scores:
Sri Lanka 484 (Dimuth Karunaratne 186, Dinesh Chandimal 151; Devendra Bishoo 4 for 143) beat West Indies 251 (Darren Bravo 50, Jerome Taylor 31; Herath 6 for 68) and 227 (Jermaine Blackwood 92, Kraigg Brathwaite 34; Herath 4 f0r 79) by an innings and six runs.
