Sri Lanka v West Indies 1st Test, Day 1 Review: Sri Lanka takes the honors on Day 1 at Galle

Sri Lanka v West Indies 1st Test, Day 1 Review: Sri Lanka takes the honors on Day 1 at Galle: Angelo Mathews had no hesitation in choosing to bat on what he termed a “typical Galle wicket, [with] a lot of runs in it”. Sri Lanka handed a debut to Milinda Siriwardana, who made an unbeaten century for the Board President’s XI in a 3-day game against the West Indians.

The hosts decided to play 2 seamers and 2 spinners. Tharindu Kaushal was picked to partner Ranaga Herath in the spin department; Nuwan Pradeep and Dhammika Prasad being the two seamers. The batting line-up as expected included Kaushal Silva, Dimuth Karunaratne, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dinesh Chandimal and Kusal Perera (wk).

The visitors decided to play 4 fast bowlers hence Shannon Gabriel got a look in ahead of a spinner. Jason Holder, the skipper, was set to lead the fast bowling unit which included the experienced pair of Jerome Taylor and Kemar Roach. Devendra Bishoo was the lone specialist spinner picked in the team. The batting looked well balanced with the likes of Kraigg Brathwaite, Shai Hope, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Jemaine Blackwood and Denesh Ramdin (wk).

Holder used his fast bowlers in short bursts – there was only one spell of more than four overs. Taylor and Roach asked questions of Karunaratne and Silva during their new-ball spells, but the openers survived them comfortably, apart from a loose edged drive from Silva that fell just short of gully. Silva, taking guard on middle stump and ending up in a second stance on off stump after his trigger movement, was happy to play inside the line and get beaten by Taylor’s swing and Roach’s seam movement.

The runs came slowly, but the initial nerves seemed to calm against Holder and Shannon Gabriel, who didn’t move the ball as much as the new-ball pair. The 50 partnership came up in the 16th over, and West Indies were looking just a touch short on inspiration and just a touch flustered by the number of quick singles they were conceding. But they didn’t have to wait too long for the wicket, which came when Roach came back on for his second spell and got Silva to nick one into the safe hands of Ramdin.

Thirimanne’s 62-ball stay was a struggle all through, characterised by an utter inability to find the gaps and ultimately threw his wicket away. Looking to dominate Bishoo, he ran down the track and went hard at the ball, looking perhaps to hit over mid-on. Extra turn, though, caused him to hit the ball to short midwicket off the inside half of his bat.

The day clearly belonged to Karunaratne who raised his third Test century with a six off Bishoo. Karunaratne left well when the quicks angled the ball across him, and forced all of them to try their luck from around the wicket. Facing disciplined lines outside off for most part, Karunaratne read the lengths well, picking up most of his runs with checked drives through cover. Against the leg spinner Bishoo, he used his feet well, coming down the track to either whip him with the turn or to get close enough to the pitch of the ball to smother any potential misbehavior out of the rough.

Dinesh Chandimal continued his love affair with Galle scoring his 3rd successive fifty-plus score at the picturesque ground. West Indies did themselves no good by dropping two catches. The first spill didn’t cost them too much – Lahiru Thirimanne, the reprieved batsman, was disimissed soon after – but the other surely did. A backtracking Jerome Taylor failed to grasp Dinesh Chandimal at mid-on when he miscued an attempted pull off Devendra Bishoo. At that time on 11 Chandimal ended the day with an unbeaten 72. With Karunaratne still going strong on 135 and the score at the end of days play being 250/2, SL will be looking for a huge first innings total to put pressure on the visitors. As for the Windies the only way back is wickets and the 1st session on day 2 holds great significance.

Brief Scores:

Sri Lanka 1^st Innings – 250 for 2 (Karunaratne 135*, Chandimal 72*; Roach 1-33, Bishoo 78-1)