(Part IV – Final Instalment)
By Winston McGowan
This fourth and final instalment of this article will focus on the two Test series between the West Indies and Sri Lanka which immediately preceded the recently concluded tour by Mahela Jayawardena’s team.
The first of these series was contested in the Caribbean in June 2003, when the two sides were led by Brain Lara in his second stint as skipper and Hashan Tillekeratne, while the second took place in July 2005 in Sri Lanka, where the captains were Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Marvan Atapattu. Both series were short two-match rubbers.
In 2003 the first Test was played in St. Lucia at the new Beausejour Stadium, the Caribbean’s eighth Test venue.
It was the first time a Test was played in St. Lucia and the game marked the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the West Indies involvement in Test cricket which had begun in 1928 in England. The match regrettably was severely affected by rain, which caused the loss of more than half of the third day’s play and the entire fourth day.
Sri Lanka, batting first after winning the toss, was dismissed for 356. This total was due mainly to a century by the opener, Atapattu (118), and 56 by Kumar Sangakkara, batting at Number 3. The best West Indian bowler was the Barbadian, Corey Collymore, who took 5 for 66 in 29 overs.
It was Collymore’s first Test since his debut against Australia in 1999 for in the intervening four years he had been selected only for one-day international matches.
The West Indies replied with a substantial score of 477 for 9 wickets declared, their highest innings against Sri Lanka. This score was due mainly to a masterful double hundred (209) by Lara, his fifth Test double century and his fifth hundred in five consecutive Tests against Sri Lanka dating back to 1997. He was involved in two important partnerships – one of 174 for the third wicket with Wavell Hinds who also made a century (113 runs) and another of 136 for the seventh wicket with Omari Banks who scored 50, his maiden Test half-century.
The best Sri Lankan bowler was Muttiah Muralitharan who took 5 for 138 in 50 overs with his off-spin, his 38th five-wicket haul in an innings in 81 Tests.
The Sri Lankans in their second innings scored 126 without losing a wicket, with Sanath Jayasuriya contributing 72 and Atapattu 50. The game thus ended in a tame draw. One of its features was that it witnessed the unsuccessful Test debut of the young Jamaican fast bowler, Jermaine Taylor, who celebrated his 19th birthday during the match. Taylor conceded 116 runs in 33 overs in the game without capturing a wicket.
In contrast to this comparatively high-scoring first Test which was played on a placid pitch, the second match of the rubber was a low-scoring affair. It was played on the quicker Sabina Park pitch which encouraged the faster bowlers and resulted in a comfortable come-from-behind victory by the West Indies by seven wickets.
Sri Lanka, put in to bat by the West Indies, was dismissed for 208, with only one batsman, namely, Sangakkara (75), reaching 30. The most successful West Indian bowler was the 21 year-old Barbadian fast bowler, Fidel Edwards, who was playing only his second first-class match. His selection, based on his performance in a few net sessions which impressed skipper Brian Lara, was highly controversial and was criticised widely as a reckless gamble. Edwards, however, confounded his critics by taking 5 for 36 in 15.4 overs delivered with his slingy round-arm action. It was the third best Test debut figures by a West Indian bowler and the seventh occasion that a West Indian had taken five wickets in a Test innings on his debut.
The West Indies replied with 191 with the top score of 31 being made by Chris Gayle and Ramnaresh Sarwan. They were unable to cope with the pace of Prabath Nissanka who, playing in only his fourth Test, took 5 for 64.
The Sri Lankans, enjoying a slender lead of 17 runs, were dismissed in their second innings for 194 due mainly to impressive bowling by Collymore who took 7 for 57 in 16 overs. The West Indies then hit off the 212 runs needed for victory with the loss of only three wickets. This was largely the result of a productive aggressive third-wicket partnership of 161 runs between Sarwan (82) and Lara (80 not out), the last 92 runs being scored in only 12 overs.
The West Indies therefore won the series by one game to nil with one Test drawn. Their success was due above all to the productive batting of Lara and the effective bowling of Collymore. Lara, Man-of-the-Match in the first Test, continuing his previous achievements against Sri Lanka, scored 299 runs in three innings with an average of 149.50.
Thus in his entire career in 14 innings in 8 Tests against Sri Lanka he scored 1125 runs, including two double centuries, three single hundreds and two fifties with an excellent average of 86.53. Second to him in the team’s batting averages in the 2003 series was Wavell Hinds with 161 runs and an average of 53.66.
Collymore was voted Man-of-the-Match for the second Test as well as Man-of-the-Series, in which he took 14 wickets for 159 runs with an average of 11.35 runs a wicket. His match analysis of 9 for 85 in the second Test remains the best figures for a West Indian bowler in Tests against Sri Lanka.
He dismissed Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka’s most celebrated and feared batsman, on all three occasions he was dismissed.
Second to him in the bowling averages was Edwards with 6 wickets for 90 runs or an average of 15 runs a wicket.
The only Guyanese to represent the West Indies in the series was Sarwan, who had moderate success. With scores of 7, 31 and 82, he had an aggregate of 120 runs and an average of 40 runs an innings.
The Sri Lankans had only a few commendable performances in the series. Their best achievement was the batting of Atapattu who demonstrated skill and application in scoring 211 runs with an average of 70.33, thus making amends for his failure in his previous tour in 1997 when he made only 7 and 10 in the Test which he played. Apart from him, only Sangakkara (143 runs) and Jayasuriya (119 runs) had an aggregate of more than 100 runs in the series. Particularly disappointing was the batting of the skipper, Tillekeratne, who had been dominant in the previous series between the two teams scoring over 400 runs. On this occasion, however, he managed only 33 runs in three innings.
The most successful Sri Lankan bowler was Muralitharan who took nine wickets for 209 runs at an average of 23.22 runs each. The left-arm pacer, Chaminda Vaas, on whom the team depended considerably, was largely ineffective, taking only four wickets in the two Tests and conceding 203 runs in 66 overs, with a high average cost of 50.75 runs per wicket.
The Sri Lankans returned home disappointed. They would make amends, however, in their next encounter with the West Indies in Sri Lanka in 2005 when they faced what was virtually a West Indies second eleven as a result of a dispute between the West Indies Cricket Board and the Players’ Association.
On this tour the weakened West Indies team performed better than expected. It was competitive in both games, but eventually lost them by misleading margins, the first by six wickets and the second by 240 runs. During the series four West Indians made their Test debuts, the batsmen, Xavier Marshall, Runako Morton and Ryan Ramdass and the wicket-keeper, Dinesh Ramdin.
In the first Test in Colombo, the West Indies, winning the toss and batting, scored 285 due mainly to useful knocks by skipper Chanderpaul (69), Ramdin (56) and Morton (43). Their opponents, finding difficulty in dealing with the pace of Jermaine Lawson (4 for 59) and Darren Powell (2 for 31) were dismissed for 227.
The West Indies, batting a second time with a useful lead of 58, were routed for 113 by Muralitharan (6 for 36) and Vaas (4 for 15). Only Chanderpaul, who again made the top score (48 not out) coped with the pace-spin combination, with only two other batsmen, Tino Best (27) and Ramdin (11) reaching double figures.
The Sri Lankans were given a scare as they pursued the winning target of 172 runs. They lost their first three wickets for 49 runs but reached the target with the loss of only one more wicket due to valuable innings by Thelan Samaraweena (51) and Jayawardena (41 not out), who shared a critical fourth-wicket partnership of 86 runs. All four wickets which fell were taken by Lawson for 43 runs. He thus had excellent match figures of 8 for 102.
In the second Test at Kandy, Sri Lanka, put in to bat; was dismissed for 150 due mainly to hostile pace bowling by Powell (5 for 25) and Best (3 for 50).
In reply the West Indies, however, made only 148 runs with the Guyanese, Narsingh Deonarine, making the top score of 40. The batsmen were routed by Vaas who took 6 for 22 in 15 overs.
The Sri Lankans batted better in their second knock, scoring 375 for 7 wickets declared, owing mainly to an impressive century (157 not out) by Sangakkara. The West Indies, requiring 378 to win, failed again in their second innings, scoring only 137 runs. Only four batsmen reached double figures – Deonarine top scoring again (29), Ramdin (28), Chanderpaul (24) and Ramdass (23). Muralitharan, with 8 wickets for 46 in 16.2 overs, was almost unplayable.
Thus the Sri Lankans made a clean sweep in a series against the West Indies for the second time, emulating their success in 2001 against Carl Hooper’s team. After five encounters between the two teams in 1993, 1997, 2001, 2003 and 2005, neither of them had won a single Test, much less a series, against the other away from home.
This was the objective of Mahela Jayawardena as he led his side on the recent tour to the Caribbean.
Until then in 10 Tests between the two teams, the West Indies had won two and lost five with three games ending in a draw. Both of the West Indies victories were achieved in the Caribbean and all five losses were experienced in Sri Lanka. Two of the draws were at home and the other in Sri Lanka in their first clash in 1993.
