Sri Lanka v West Indies 1st Test, Review: Herath stars in an emphatic win for Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka v West Indies 1st Test, Review: Herath stars in an emphatic win for Sri Lanka: West Indies began the 4th day, 2 down, facing a deficit of 166. The visitors must have hoped for the night-watchman Devendra Bishoo to hang around long enough to frustrate the Sri Lankans however Rangana Herath had other ideas.

He first sent back Bishoo, who nicked an attempted square-cut to slip. Marlon Samuels came and went off the first ball. Staying on the back foot to a ball from Herath he should have been on the front foot to, Samuels shouldered arms. The ball slid in with the angle and hit his back pad. He called for a needless review; the ball was destined to hit middle stump. Nuwan Pradeep got Darren Bravo pushing half-forward to defend, only to edge it to the keeper. The next to go was Denesh Ramdin. Trying to drive Siriwardana he edged one to second slip, where Silva managed to grab a fast-travelling ball. Sri Lanka thus took 4 key wickets in the morning session.

Jermaine Blackwood was looking in fine touch and continued batting with freedom. He survived through to lunch, and reached his half-century soon after. Jason Holder added 36 with him for the 7th wicket before he was run out in an unfortunate manner. Stepping out to flick Herath into the leg side, he played across the ball which deflected off his pad to Mathews at slip. Spotting Holder out of his crease, Matthews threw down the stumps direct.

Herath then removed Kemar Roach with the help of an alert Kusal Perera who whipped the bails off with the batsman’s back toe on the line. When Dhammika Prasad trapped Jerome Taylor with a full, straight ball in the next over, West Indies were 9 down, with 44 still to get to avoid an innings defeat. Blackwood, left with no other option but to attack, hit Herath for 2 fours and 2 sixes, all down the ground, in the space of 9 balls. He bowled a rare short ball and Blackwood flat-batted it to the cover boundary. Batting on 92 with all nine fielders on the boundary, he ran down the track to the 3 ball of Prasad’s over, and only managed to pick out deep extra cover.

Rangana Herath’s 5th, 10-wicket match haul in Tests won it for Sri Lanka by an innings and six runs inside two session on the 4th day. For the visitors the only consolation came from Jermaine Blackwood who showed the kind of batting they will need in the series deciding match at the P Sara Oval which begins on 22nd October.

Brief Scores:

Sri Lanka 1st Innings – 484/10 (Karunaratne 186*, Chandimal 151; Bishoo 143/4)

West Indies 1st Innings – 251/10 (DM Bravo 50; Herath 68/6)

West Indies 2nd Innings (f/o) – 227/10 (J Blackwood 92; Herath 79/4)

Result:

Sri Lanka win by an innings and 6 run.

Player of the match – Rangana Herath (Sri Lanka)

Series – Sri Lanka lead the 2-match series 1-0