Debutant Warrican’s four scalps RESTRICTS SRI LANKA TO 200
P. Sara Stadium, the venue of the deciding second and final Test match between Sri Lanka and West Indies turned out to be a bowlers paradise fas expected with the Windies pace trio of skipper Jason Holder, Jerome Taylor and Kemar Roach making the early breakthroughs before debutant left arm spinner Jomel Warrican bagged four scalps to bowl out Sri Lanka for 200 on day one.
West Indies in their turn to lost an early wicket to end the day on 17 for 1 as fading light forced the umpires to call off play with nearly 20 overs of play left for the day.
Right arm pacie Jerome Taylor made the first breakthrough in the fourth ball of the first over after Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews won the toss and elected to take first lease of the wicket forcing Kaushal Silva edge a catch to wicket keeper Denesh Ramdin with just one run on the board. Kusal Mendis making his debut joined Dimuth Karunaratne the top scorer of the Test match at Galle and the pair seemed to settle down but after having added 33 runs they were separated with Karunaratne being trapped lbw by Jason Holder having made a slow 13 off 39 balls. Sri Lanka was dealt a double blow at the same score when Mendis was sent back to the pavilion by Kemar Roach for an identical score of 13 in 27 balls. Dinesh Chandimal the other Sri Lanka centurion at the Test match in Galle looked uncomfortable but was ably supported skipper Mathews who was the next to go being dismissed by his counterpart Holder having added a slow 25 runs for the fourth wicket as Sri Lanka went into the lunch break badly placed on 59 for 4. A sustainable partnership for Sri Lanka was the need in the post lunch session and Milinda Siriwardena playing in only his second Test joining Chandimal played with maturity and looked confident and the pair looked comfortable and kept the scoreboard ticking. The duo’s partnership of 39 runs came to an end with Taylor taking his second scalp when he clean bowled Chandimal who made 25 in 71 balls.
Siriwardena unruffled reached his half ton with a six as he along with Kusal Perera added 37 runs for the sixth wicket before Kusal fell victim to spinner Warrican for his maiden Test wicket. Rangana Herath the first Test hero was the only lower batsman to put up some resistance remaining unbeaten on 26.