Century worth the wait for Windies captain

Left hanging on 99 overnight, West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite completed his ninth test century yesterday to place his team in a strong position at stumps on the second day of the second cricket test against Sri Lanka.

Brathwaite needed only two balls at the start of the day to reach his first century since July 2018. He worked the second ball from Suranga Lakmal to fine leg for a single to also complete his first hundred as captain from 241 balls with 11 fours.

Brathwaite was the 16th player in test history to be stranded on 99 overnight and he maintained a streak as all 16 have been converted into hundreds. He has now scored nine of the last 10 centuries by a West Indies opener.

Brathwaite’s 103-run eighthwicket partnership with Rahkeem Cornwall helped the West Indies to 354 as they batted first after losing the toss. At stumps, Sri Lanka were 136-3, 218 runs behind.

Lahiru Thirimanne deftly followed his scores of 70 and 76 in the first test with 55 which provided solidity at the top of the Sri Lanka order. Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya de Silva then batted through 25 overs in an unbroken fourth-wicket stand which was worth 59 runs at stumps when Chandimal was 34 not out and de Silva 23.

Jason Holder, who was replaced by Brathwaite as captain, played a major role in encouraging the West Indies players late in the day.

“It has been a pretty docile wicket so far so we’ve got to try to motivate ourselves,” Holder said. “I took it upon myself to try to encourage the guys and ensure we kept going through the entire innings.

“It was a pretty good effort from the bowlers so far, not a wicket on which you can just blast people out.”

Holder said the match is closely balanced after two days.

“It’s pretty even-stevens,” he said. “We’ve got two set batsmen at the crease. Our bowlers toiled very hard, we’re still 60 overs in; maybe if we can grab one of two more wickets before the second new ball then I believe we’ll be pretty much in the game.”

The day began with high anticipation of Brathwaite’s century.

Cornwall, 43 not out overnight, reached his half century with a four off Lakmal, from 64 balls with eight fours and a six.

Cornwall had reached a new high score, 73, when he mistimed a drive off Lakmal and provided a gentle, lobbed catch to Vishwa Fernando at mid-off.

Brathwaite stepped up his scoring rate, hitting Lakmal and Dushmantha Chameera to the boundaries at mid-off and mid-on in the next two overs.

He enjoyed a brief stand with Kemar Roach who was out for nine, caught by Niroshan Dickwella off the bowling of Chameera, giving the wicketkeeper his fifth catch of the innings.

Brathwaite batted through the innings and was the last man out at 354.