- Dellmar
West Indies' Wavell Hinds drives to the boundary during his innings of 74 not out against Sri Lanka yesterday.
GROS ISLET, CMC:
COREY COLLYMORE and Wavell Hinds, just two of the many players striving to establish permanence in the West Indies team, pressed their claims forcefully on the second day of the historic First Cable and Wireless Test against Sri Lanka at the Beausejour Stadium yesterday.
Picking up from where he left off on the opening day, Collymore broke the back of the tourists' resistance in the morning with a three-wicket burst that lifted him to his first five-wicket innings haul (5-67 off 29 overs) in just his second Test.
RESISTANCE
Unexpected, dreary resistance from the Sri Lankans' last two wickets dragged their eventual total to 354 on the stroke of tea, but Hinds' assault on all bowlers on the way to an unbeaten 74 put the tourists on the back foot with the home team reaching 161 for two off just 33 overs in the final session.
Coming to the crease after Daren Ganga, promoted to open with Chris Gayle, was palpably lbw for 12 to left-arm seamer Chaminda Vaas, Hinds stamped his authority immediately.
The 'Man of the Series' from the one-dayers against Australia hoisted Thilan Samaraweera for a huge six over long-on and even the introduction of Muttiah Muralitharan hardly interrupted his progress. The champion off-spinner struck in his second over, earning a leg-before verdict against Chris Gayle (27), but was deposited over the square-leg boundary twice by Hinds who employed the sweep shot with great power and to great effect.
At the other end, Brian Lara continued from where he left off in Sri Lanka two years ago. Stroking the first delivery he faced from Muralitharan sweetly to the wide long-on boundary, the West Indies captain was unbeaten on 36 at stumps, helping his fellow left-hander to add 95 runs so far for the third wicket in better than even time. With the scoring rate approaching five runs per over, only Vaas (1-29 off 11 overs) escaped punishment as even Muralitharan conceded 52 runs off just nine overs.
The late afternoon delight was in stark contrast to the post-lunch crawl as Vaas (38) got obdurate support from Muralitharan (14) and Prabath Nissanka (13 not out) in adding 66 runs for Sri Lanka's last two wickets in almost three hours after they seemed doomed to be dismissed before lunch at 288 for eight.
SCOREBOARDp>Sri Lanka first Innings
(Resumed at 250-4)
M. Atapattu c Lara b Hinds 118
S. Jayasuriya c Banks b Collymore 8
K. Sangakkara lbw b Gayle 56
M. Jayawardene c Lara b Banks 45
H. Tillekeratne b Collymore 13
T. Samaraweera c Jacobs b Collymore 11
R. Kaluwitharana lbw b Collymore 2
K. Lokuarachchi c Lara b Collymore 15
C. Vaas c Jacobs b Gayle 38
M. Muralitharan lbw b Hinds 14
P. Nissanka not out 13
Extras (4b, 4lb, 5w, 8nb) 21
Total (143.2 overs all out) 354
Fall: 1-19, 2-127, 3-195, 4-228, 5-266, 6-269, 7-285, 8-288, 9-326, 10-354.
Bowling: Dillon 29-7-48-0 (2w, 1nb), Collymore 29-4-67-5 (3w, 6nb), Taylor 27-3-97-0 (1nb), Hinds 11-4-28-2, Banks 33-8-74-1, Gayle 9.2-1-22-2, Samuels 3-0-9-0, Sarwan 2-1-1-0.
West Indies first Innings
C. Gayle lbw b Muralitharan 27
D. Ganga lbw b Vaas 12
W. Hinds not out 74
B. Lara not out 36
Extras (2lb, 10nb) 12
Total (33 overs - 2wkts) 161
Fall: 1-18, 2-66.
Bowling: Vaas 11-3-29-1 (4nb), Nissanka 8-0-47-0 (4nb), Samaraweera 4-0-31-0, Muralitharan 9-0-52-0, Lokuarachchi 1-1-0-0.
Another milestone for Lara
GROS ISLET, St. Lucia, CMC:
DOUBLE WORLD batting record holder Brian Lara achieved another record yesterday when he surpassed Sir Vivian Richards as the West Indies fielder with most catches.
Lara achieved the mark when his diving effort at slip to remove Kaushal Lokuarachchi gave him his 123rd Test catch, going past Sir Vivian's 122.
The West Indies captain and Sir Vivian Richards are in a quartet of West Indies cricketers with more than hundred Test catches - the others being Carl Hooper (115) and Sir Garfield Sobers (109).
Lara equalled Sir Vivian's mark with the dismissal of century-maker Marvan Atapattu.
