WI vs SL, 2nd Test, Day 1, Review: Windies in the drivers' seat at the end of the day

After dominating Sri Lanka in the first Test in all aspects of the game, West Indies geared up for the 2nd Test taking a lot of confidence from the previous one. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, had a lot to sort out going into this game. Their fielding was below par and batting was a nightmare in the first game. However, at the close of play on day-1, it didn’t seem as if they got their act together.

The pitch at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium at St Lucia is regarded to be one of the best in the Carribean. However, for this game, it carried a lot of grass on it. Further, there was rainfall before the game begun and the conditions were moist. Hence, the pitch was expected to treat the pacers with some great swing on the first day. But, in a surprising turn around of things, Sri Lanka opted to bat first after winning the toss.

Bad decision at the toss puts Sri Lanka in trouble

It was quite surprising when Sri Lanka opted to bat first. It was a huge tactical error from them as it was believed that the pitch would be best for batting on the second day. Furthermore, they also roped in two debutants into their side. The decision to bat first proved very costly for them as they failed to put on a good total.

Dinesh Chandimal spoke about a few tactical changes and execution of things at the toss. But, at least for now, these didn’t seem to have worked out. It seemed as if Chandimal and the management were more concerned about the previous stats on this ground rather than the conditions.

West Indies bowlers would have been licking their lips after they got to know that they will bowl first on that pitch. They left no stone unturned and exploited the conditions. Kemar Roach and Shannon Gabriel were relentless with their bowling. They bowled some absolute peach of deliveries in the first session putting Sri Lanka on the backfoot even before they realised what was going on.

Debutant Mahela Udawatte was out for a second ball duck. Soon, Dhananjaya de Silva was dismissed in the sixth over by Kemar Roach. Kusal Perera, who was due for a big one also perished after scoring 32 runs. His wicket was Kemar Roach’s 150th wicket in Tests. Then, Windies skipper Jason Holder chipped in. He dismissed the dangerous Kusal Mendis for 45 runs and Sri Lanka was never able to recover from there on despite heroics from Chandimal.

Dinesh Chandimal comes to the rescue

Although skipper Dinesh Chandimal was battling hard from one end, he received no support from the other end. He was the lone warrior for Sri Lanka in the first innings. He battled hard against all the odds to help Sri Lanka post at least a decent total on the board. Chandimal scored his 11th Test century and his innings was a great display of skill, application and concentration. He lashed out on the loose balls and respected the good ones.

Chandimal hit 10 boundaries and one six in his innings. He remained not out till the end and scored 119 runs. Sri Lanka could have possibly posted a much better total had he got some support from the other batsmen. In the end, the Lankans posted a scored of 253 runs on the board. Roach picked 4 wickets while Gabriel picked a 5-wicket haul.

Windies batted for just two overs towards the end of the day and scored 2 runs without losing any wickets.

Brief Scores

Sri  Lanka, 1st Innings: 253/10 in 79 overs (Dinesh Chandimal 119*, Kusal Mendis 45, Shannon Gabriel 5/59)

West Indies, 1st Innings: 2/0 in 2 overs (K Brathwaite 2*, Devon Smith 0*, Akila Dananjaya 0/0)