SRI LANKA REACH TEA ON 60 FOR 1
Sri Lanka recovered from the early wicket of captain Dimuth Karunaratne to reach tea on 60 for 1 on the second day of the second Test against the West Indies in Antigua earlier this morning.
Karunaratne’s opening partner Lahiru Thirimanne was closing on a half century, having scored 40 off 85 balls, having struck up an unbeaten second wicket partnership of 42 with Oshada Fernando.
Fernando had grafted his way to 18 off 67 balls, having come to the crease when Sri Lanka lost their first wicket with the score on 18.
Karunaratne scored his first run off the first ball of the innings, but played out 15 dot balls before edging Alzarri Joseph to third slip where Nkrumah Bonner took a stunning catch diving to his right.
Sri Lanka still trail by 294 runs, after the West Indies were bowled out for 354.
Earlier, Kraigg Brathwaite completed a ninth Test century and was eventually the last man out for 126 on the stroke of lunch.
Suranga Lakmal led the visitors’ effort with figures of four for 94 off 28 overs.
Experienced fast-medium bowler Lakmal finally broke through for the tourists halfway through the morning session when he ended a 103-run eighthwicket partnership between Brathwaite and Rahkeem Cornwall.
Cornwall’s 73 came off 92 balls and was embellished by 10 fours and one six.
Captain Brathwaite, who resumed on 99 overnight and went to three figures by turning the third ball of the morning from Lakmal to fine leg, never accelerated out of first gear through his eight-and-ahalf-hour vigil, even with the demise of Cornwall.
He eventually stroked two more boundaries to add to his tally of 11 from day one but then saw the dismissal of Kemar Roach off Dushmantha Chameera, giving wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella his fifth catch of the innings.
Joined by last man Shannon Gabriel, someone with no pretensions to batsmanship, it seemed almost inevitable that Brathwaite would complete the rare feat of carrying his bat through a completed Test innings twice, having done so previously against Pakistan in Sharjah in 2016.
But it was the skipper who perished, playing on for 126 and giving Chameera a third wicket of the innings.
Brathwaite’s marathon effort, during which he went past 4,000 Test runs, occupied 311 deliveries in which he stroked 13 fours.
(With agency inputs)