SL v ZIM, One-off Test, Day 1 Review: Ervine's ton puts Zimbabwe in the driver's seat

A statement of intent that was from the visitors, who held on strong despite a spectacular bowling display from Sri Lanka. As many had predicted, it the wizard of the Lankan island Rangana Herath who rattled all the big names, but there was some amount of resilience from Zimbabwe which kept them in a strong position at the end of Day 1.

Craig Ervine’s spectacular century was backed up well by some cameos in the middle order, which propelled their side to 344 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. Ervine remained unbeaten on 151 off 238 balls and walked back to the dressing room with a huge ovation from the Premadasa crowd.

It was Graeme Cremer who called it right at the toss and elected to bat first, a decision which didn’t seem right for a good period of time. New skipper Dinesh Chandimal decided to bring in his trump card Herath in the first 10 overs and that proved to be a masterstroke. The left-arm spinner cleaned up Chakabva (12 off 23 balls) in the 8th over and 4 overs later, he got the big fish, Hamilton Masakadza (19 off 40 balls).

Number 3 Tarisai Musakanda (6) didn’t stay long as youngster Lahiru Kumara found a feather off his bat, which the on-field umpires failed to spot, but Sri Lanka’s review eventually ensured the former walked back. Craig Ervine and Sean Williams (22 off 26 balls) then added another 32 runs, before Williams fell prey for Dilruwan Perera. Sri Lanka were running away with the game but that was when a stunning middle-order fight back brought Zimbabwe back in the game.

The unexpected fightback

Ervine took charge of the innings and completed a half-century in the most composed of ways possible. But on the other end, Sikander Raza had other ideas to tackle the spin trio of Sri Lanka. He went bang right from the outset and run started to flow at a brisk pace. After scoring 36 off just 47 balls, Herath was the man who broke the shackles and Ervine then added another 41-run partnership with Peter Moore.

As wickets kept tumbling at one end, the 31-year-old neatly built a fantastic inning, working hard whilst placing every brick in its place. Every other batter managed to stick alongside him for a short span of time, but Ervine ensured they amassed as many runs as possible in the time they spent.

Aslela Gunaratne then came into the bowling attack and he got a break through in his very first over. After hitting a six in the previous over, Moore tried to spank another one out of the park and gifted the leg-spinner his wicket.

With Malcolm Waller (36 off 39 balls) scoring at a decent strike-rate, the southpaw got to his hundred against all the odds and the duo scored 65 just 11.5 overs together. The scoring rate had gone up from 2.5 to almost 3.8 by the time Waller departed. Skipper Cremer stuck in for another ten overs, but he never looked like staying there for long.

Gunaratne got the better of him and just when Sri Lanka were gearing to bat for some time on Day 1 by picking the remaining two wickets, Donald Tiripano(24 not out off 45 balls) hung in with Ervine till the end of the day’s play. Ervine completed his 150 as well and remained unbeaten by the time the umpires called off the day’s play. Zimbabwe held their nerves and ensured they had the upper hand, making Sri Lanka’s task, even tougher for the second day.

Brief Scores

Zimbabwe: 344/8 in 90 overs(Ervine 151*, Tiripano 24*, Waller 36, Herath 4/106)