Sri Lanka v West Indies, Day One: Karunaratne century puts Sri Lanka in a commanding position
Sri Lanka won the toss and elected to bat in the first Test of the Sobers/Tissera Trophy, with captain Angelo Mathews terming the Galle wicket as “one with a lot of runs in it”. Milinda Siriwardana, who made an unbeaten century in the warm-up game against West Indies, was handed a debut by Sri Lanka.
West Indies went into the Test with four fast bowlers, including captain Jason Holder, and one spinner in Devendra Bishoo. Sri Lanka went in with five bowlers too, including their captain Angelo Mathews, and two spinners in Rangana Herath and Tharindu Kaushal.
Squads:
Sri Lanka squad: Kaushal Silva, Dimuth Karunaratne, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews (C), Milinda Siriwardana, Kusal Perera (Wk), Dhammika Prasad, Rangana Herath, Tharindu Kaushal, Nuwan Pradeep.
West Indies squad: Kraigg Brathwaite, Shai Hope, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Jermaine Blackwood, Denesh Ramdin (Wk), Jason Holder (C), Jerome Taylor, Devendra Bishoo, Kemar Roach, Shannon Gabriel.
Taylor and Roach troubled the Sri Lankan openers early on with their swing bowling. Both the openers, however, survived any casualties and got the first 50-run opening partnership for Sri Lanka since December 2014.
Roach came back for his second spell and continued where he left off and forced Silva to nick him thus getting the first breakthrough for the West Indians. Thirimanne came to bat next but struggled for 62 balls to make 16 runs. He fell trying to take on Bishoo, instead mistiming the ball to short midwicket.
Sri Lanka were 101-2 when Dinesh Chandimal came to the crease. West Indies will rue the moment when Taylor dropped Chandimal of Bishoo when the batsman was just on 11. This could have put further pressure on the Sri Lankan middle order.
After tea, Sri Lanka settled down and dominated the final session of the day, with both the batsmen coming to grips with the bowling attack. Sri Lanka scored 109 runs in the session after tea. Chandimal ended the day on an unbeaten 72 while the man of the day definitely was Karunaratne, who ended the day with a well-made 135.
Karunaratne played brilliantly all day long, watching the ball closely and putting away the bad deliveries from both the pacers and the spinners. He brought up his second Test century with a six over cow corner.
The only time West Indies came close to getting Karunaratne out was when there was a mix-up between Chandimal and him. Karunaratne was well short of the crease, but Blackwood failed to hit the wickets from short midwicket.
West Indies will have their task cut out on Day Two as they look to break up the partnership between Karunaratne and Chandimal. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, will hope that their well-set batsmen can continue to score runs and post a big first innings total. Chandimal scored his highest Test score (162*) at the very same venue, in a match-winning cause against India.
Brief Scores:
Sri Lanka – 250/2, 90 overs (Karunaratne – 135*, Chandimal – 72*; Roach – 1/33, Bishoo – 1/78)