Cricket's Closest Contests - West Indies vs Sri Lanka, Port-of-Spain, 2008

A match between Sri Lanka and West Indies played before the inaugural edition of the IPL should not warrant too much of attention. More so if the likes of Muttiah Muralitharan and Sanath Jayasuriya are not playing and Chris Gayle scores a fifty at a strike rate of 64.19. But then, cricket, being the charming seductress she is, always has something new in store for one to rejoice.

It started off being yet another plain vanilla One Day International. Both teams were building up for the World Cup in the subcontinent and had picked a debutant spinner each in the form of Ajantha Mendis for Sri Lanka and Suleimann Benn for West Indies. In addition, Sri Lanka had replaced Jayasuriya with the younger Mahela Udawatte.

He did not make too much of an impact though, falling for a five ball duck as Sri Lanka crumbled to 49 for 5 within the first fifteen overs against the variations of Dwayne Bravo and pace of Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards. As the then middle order batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan departed, both the teams were probably preparing for an early finish.

It took the two Chamaras – Silva and Kapugedera – who had been on the fringes for a long time, to bail Sri Lanka out with a couple of contrasting performances. While Kapugedera showed everyone present the complete repertoire of his natural style, the senior partner Silva matched him with his combative running and inventive strokeplay. By the time the latter departed for a 96 ball 67, the duo had played close to 32 overs together to help Sri Lanka cross the 200-run mark.

Kapugedera had timed his pursuit of three figures pretty well but fell just short on 95 off the penultimate ball of the innings. Still, he had lifted his team up to 235 – not a dominating total but a challenging one.

The biggest issue though was the lack of experience in the Sri Lankan bowling attack. Admittedly, they had the 392 wicket experience of Vaas but taking that out, the next best you had was Dilshan’s 45. The three Muskeeters – Muralitharan, Malinga and Maharoof – were missing in action and the likes of Kulasekara, Amerasinghe and Mendis had to step up to ensure a good fight.

The first half of the innings though was one-way traffic. While Vaas and Kulasekara stepped up to the task, they could only dislodge Devon Smith as Gayle and Sarwan chugged along past the 100 figure mark, taking a special liking to Amerasinghe along the way. And then the magic began.

Showing all the poise and verve of Muralitharan, Mendis trapped Gayle with his then hitherto unknown bag of tricks. Kulasekara used the older ball to his advantage by picking up the wickets of Sarwan and Samuels in the next over. West Indies had slipped to 110 for 4 in 28 overs and suddenly the thought of scoring 126 at nearly a run-a-ball with the last two specialist batsmen at the crease did not seem so un-daunting.

Bravo counter-attacked, as only he can, exploiting the weak link of Amerasinghe. He made up for Chanderpaul’s initial struggles with the bat as the duo added 59 in the next 10 overs, leaving 67 to get in the last twelve.

And then something happened yet again against the run of play. A bit of careless running ensured that both batsmen ended up at the same end and soon Bravo was heading to the pavilion. Patrick Browne struggled against Mendis but opened up against the part-time spin of Dilshan to strike him for a clean six. One ball later though, he was making his way back after a failed bid to repeat the shot.

Sammy was left confounded by Mendis and, one slogged six later, Taylor fell to the same man, leaving Chanderpaul and the new man Benn with 17 to get off 2 overs.

Benn struggled against the wiles of Kulasekara, slogging and missing for four deliveries before running himself out in an attempt to change the strike. He had achieved his objective though and Chanderpaul carted a boundary off the last ball to reach his half century. 13 to get off the last over with one wicket in hand.

The experienced Vaas was given the last over of the day and two-thirds into the over, it seemed that he had sealed a remarkable turnaround which had started with Silva’s and Kapugedera’s rearguard action. The last man Edwards and Chanderpaul could score only three runs in this period as they were left with the daunting task of getting 10 runs off the last two balls.

The next ball he faced, Chanderpaul slammed a straight drive past mid-off. 6 to get off 1 ball. Surely, this was too romantic an expectation from the crabby accumulator who did not sell for much in the first IPL auction.

Vaas’ response was to try and bowl a yorker. It ended up as a low full-toss on Chanderpaul’s legs which he neatly clipped to the leg-side boundary. The ball sailed over the deep mid-wicket boundary with Mahela Jayawardene left raising his hands under it.

West Indies had won the match and, surprisingly, Dwayne Bravo got the nod ahead of Chanderpaul for the Man of the Match award for his all-round exploits. The talking point of the day was Ajantha Mendis though and he led to hits for “Jack Iverson” and “Johnny Gleeson” multiplying manifold on Google. He continued to befuddle batsmen for about a year before the likes of Tendulkar and Dhoni got to him.

The series would soon be forgotten in the wake of the IPL. Chanderpaul’s struggles in the same would be better documented than this effort. Sri Lanka-West Indies is no India-Pakistan and Chanderpaul would never be considered in the same breath as Javed Miandad. Yet, no one can take anything away from his spot in the Trinidadian sun.