From Garth Wattley
In Port of Spain
West Indies’s batsmen fought a keen battle with Sri Lanka’s bowlers to share the honours on Day Two of this second and final Digicel Test match.
Ramnaresh Sarwan (57, eight fours), debutant Sewnarine Chattergoon (46, five fours), Devon Smith (47, five fours) and captain Chris Gayle (45, nine fours) battled personal challenges and their persistent opponents to get within ten runs of Sri Lanka’s first innings score of 278.
When poor light brought another premature end to play, the home team had reached 268 for seven. It was fair reward for a good comeback effort after a below par first day.
The fans scattered through the Queen’s Park Oval had seen their captain show character at the top of the order. He set the tone for the resolute battle that followed against Muttiah Muralitharan (three for 64), Chaminda Vaas (one for 67) and Thilan Thushara (two for 72).
They also saw little Chattergoon make a smooth transition to Test match batting and Smith fight his poor Test returns and limitations against Murali to keep his side in the match.
Vice-captain Sarwan’s 57 was another classy knock curtailed too early. A bat/pad catch made him Muralitharan’s second victim of the innings. Marlon Samuels had been his first, lbw. It was 141 for three then.
The Oval crowd was seeing good contest, one initiated by the West Indian bowlers early yesterday morning.
With Sri Lanka resuming on 217 for five, they got two wickets in the first five balls of the day.
In the over which Fidel Edwards was completing from the previous day, Tilakaratne Dilshan, having added just eight to his overnight 54, attempted to pull at Edwards and got a top edge which was held by wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin.
Next over, his replacement Vaas attempted a similar shot off Daren Powell and Ramdin did the honours again.
The two wickets had fallen for seven runs. But the next three cost the West Indies another 54. That was largely due to the fine work of Chamara Silva (76).
Deemed unlucky by his captain Mahela Jayawardene to have been omitted from the First Test, Silva got his chance in this match as a result of the hamstring injury which ruled out wicketkeeper Prasana Jayawardene.
In support of Dilshan on the first afternoon, he had taken the attack to the bowlers and snatched the initiative from them.
Yesterday, he assumed the role of senior partner, taking advantage of any opportunities to free his arms and strike the ball around the Oval. In total, he hit 12 fours before he was the last man out, nicely caught by Powell running around at deep backward square-leg.
The wicket fell to Bravo, who had to be called on to replace Jerome Taylor in the midst of his over after umpire Billy Bowden removed him from the attack for bowling a second beamer in the innings. It was, it seemed, a second failed attempt at a slower ball, following the one which had hit Dilshan on the wrist the previous day.
Before then, Thushara was run out by Sarwan’s driect hit and Muralitharan fell to a super catch by Bravo, diving forward at third man.
The Windies were now left with nine overs to survive to lunch against Vaas with the new ball.
Gayle and Chattergoon passed the first Test.
Despite the selection of a third opener, Smith, it was the skipper who partnered “Chatters” to the crease for his first innings in Test cricket.
“Chris Gayle never shirk from no one, or no responsibility, were the captain’s defiant words to the media on the eve of this Test. His demotion to No.6 in the second innings of the First Test had been a topic of lively debate almost anywhere two or more cricket fans were gathered.
Yesterday, the skipper backed his words with forthright action.
His 45 came off 44 balls in an opening stand of 58.
The Windies leader played and missed his share of Vaas “specials” but also hit hard and with increasing confidence with each passing over. He survived Vaas’s prodigious away swing with the new ball and, dropped by Murali on 24 off Thushara, Gayle thrived on the opportunities for scoring granted by the less frugal debutant Ishara Amerasinghe.
Twice in succession, he put pacer Amerasinghe to the boundary; the second time in the signature Chris Gayle way: off the back foot through extra-cover. The very interested crowd responded favourably to their captain’s handling of the challenge.
By lunch, he had helped himself to 39 out of 49 without loss. Left-handed Chattergoon, who turned 27 on the opening day, had just four. But the diminutive wisp of a left hander from Berbice, Guyana, looked good for much more.
No first knock butterflies were betrayed by his sound defence against Vaas and the consistency with which he picked the balls to leave.
The promise of this opening pair was eventually curtailed by Thushara, who induced Gayle to hang his bat at a delivery wide of off-stump. Gully fielder Michael Vandort grasped the low catch off the outside edge.
Sarwan and Chattergoon improved on the opening effort. At tea, taken early because of light rain, they were still together and eventually produced 79 for the second wicket.
Eventually, Vaas, brought back to bowl in tandem with Murali straight after tea, stopped them, striking Chattergoon’s off-stump as the batsman played inside a ball that held its line: 137 for two.
The further dismissals of Samuels and Sarwan, brought No.6 Smith to the crease in an unfamiliar position and with a job to do with Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
The managed 22 together before Thushara won an lbw verdict against Chanders (18).
At 199 for five, the innings was in the balance. But Smith, gradually getting more into stride despite the difficulty of negotiating the variations and each-way turn of Muraliatharan, put on 47 more with Bravo (26, two fours). But the latter paid for playing across a delivery from Amerasinghe and the bowler got the lbw decision and his first Test wicket.
The loss of Smith, defeated finally by a Murali doosra which squeezed between bat and pad in the penultimate over,was a big blow for both the player and his team.
But Denesh Ramdin and Jerome Taylor will come this morning to carry on the struggle for the Windies.
