Sri Lanka v West Indies 2nd Test, Review: Spinners win the low scoring thriller for Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka v West Indies 2nd Test, Review: Spinners win the low scoring thriller for Sri Lanka: The hopes of obtaining a result in a Test match are literally shattered even if a couple of sessions are washed away by rain, but Sri Lanka managed to win the game wherein four or more sessions were drained out. The second Test match started on an interesting note as Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews won the toss and elected to bat first and the decision soon seemed to backfire as the West Indies quicks cracked into the Lankan top order.

At lunch day 1, the home team was struggling at 59/4; Milinda Siriwardhana batted out the next session and went back at tea unbeaten on 50 off 76 balls while Sri Lanka had 145 runs in their account for the loss of 6 wickets. The last session of the day started and settled down quickly as the hosts were bowled out exactly for 200. Jomwel Warrican caused most of the damage as he got rid of 4 Sri Lankan batsmen; all other bowlers complemented him well and returned with a wicket or two.

The fall of wickets on the day continued as even West Indies lost a wicket before stumps were called after just 66 overs in the day, due to bad light. Day 2 started with a wet out field; the Windies batsmen failed to bat out the Sri Lankan pacer Dhammika Prasad who was exceptional, and got rewarded with 4 wickets in his 12 overs. Off-spinner Dilruwan Perera bowled well and grabbed 3 wickets in his 11.20 overs against 28 runs. While the West Indies would have expected to take valuable 1st innings lead, Sri Lankans bowled them out for 163 maintaining a lead of 37 runs for their team.

Sri Lanka was given early blow into their 2nd innings as Jerome Taylor sent Dimuth Karunaratne back on a golden duck. Kaushal Silva, Kusal Mendis, skipper Angelo Mathews and Milinda Sriwardhana made valuable contributions with 32, 39, 46 and 42 runs respectively that got Sri Lanka past 200 in their second innings, but it was once again a day, and an innings completely dominated by the bowlers. West Indies part timer spinner Kraigg Braithwaite was the pick of the bowlers as he sent 6 Sri Lankan batsmen back into the hut, as Taylor and Warrican got a couple each.

Sri Lanka had 243 runs lead at the end of their second innings which meant West Indies needed just 244 runs to win their first ever Test series in Sri Lanka. The home team fancied its chances of bowling out the visitors with two days to play. But the rain gods had some other plans as there was no play for most part of day 3 and entire 4th day.

West Indies had lost an early wicket in Braithwaite soon after the proceedings started on the last day. To give winnings hopes to the team Shai Hopes and Darren Bravo put together a 50-run stand. But as soon as the partnership was broken on 80, as Siriwardana dismissed Hopes for 35, Sri Lanka quickly grabbed another two wickets while Bravo was still there at the other end, batting unbeaten on 55 and West Indies went into lunch 112/4. The third session saw the Sri Lankan spinner run through West Indies line-up as Rangana Herath and Siriwardana scalped 4 and 3 wickets respectively to pull curtains on the match.

There was no resistance whatsoever by the West Indies middle and lower middle order and were bowled out for 171 in 65.5 overs giving Sri Lanka a 72 runs win in the low-scoring game that also saw rain play its role. With a win in the 2^nd Test the home team also won the 2-Test series 1-0.

Brief Scores:

Sri Lanka 1st Innings – 200 in 66 overs (Milinda Siriwardana 68; Jomes Warrican 4/67)

West Indies 1st Innings – 163 in 64.2 overs (Kraigg Brathwaite 47; Dhammika Prasad 4/34)

Sri Lanka lead by 37 runs

Sri Lanka 2nd Innings – 206 in 75.3 overs (Angelo Mathews 46; Brathwaite 6/29)

West Indies 2nd Innings – 171 in 65.5 overs (Darren Bravo 61; Rangana Herath 4/56)

Sri Lanka win by 72 runs

Man of the Match – TAM Siriwardana (Sri Lanka)
Player of the Series – HMRKB Herath (Sri Lanka)