All those present at De Soysa Park Stadium today were robbed of a
potentially appetising contest on the final day of this practice
match. Robbed by a Sri Lankan team too concerned about losing and
unprepared to take minimal risks in an effort to win the match. Denied
an opportunity to learn from a run chase the players had to settle for
tedious and quite pointless last two sessions. Required to score 269
in just 56 overs the Zimbawean's unsurprisingly decided not to chase
the runs, finishing 81-4.
Sri Lanka's unwillingness to set a reasonable target, say something in
the region of 210-220 is really quite inexplicable on a pitch that was
giving plenty of assistance to their spinners and against a team with
a relatively inexperienced top order. One hopes that the approach of
both sides will improve in the next match. So far we have no results
from the first three matches.
Starting the day with a lead of 117 the Sri Lankan openers extended
their fine opening partnership to 128. Ian Daniels (52) took over the
role of the aggressor this morning and started well. Looking to be
expansive they soon started to struggle against the Zimbabwean
spinner's leg stump line. Neither Daniels nor Kalavitigoda (72) were
able to increase the scoring rate sufficiently and in the 90 minutes
they batted this morning they only scored 50 runs.
When Daniels was eventually adjudged LBW off the bowling of Raymond
Price it precipitated a dramatic collapse as the Sri Lankan's tried to
increase the tempo but only succeeded in losing wickets. Five wickets
falling for just 16 runs in 28 minutes.
However, spurred on by lunch the Sri lankan's came out in the next
session all guns blazing, scoring 70 runs from just nine overs. Kumar
Sangakkara (48*) continued his good form of the first innings with a
sparking 48 from just 37 deliveries. Prepared to improvise and use his
feet he countered the leg stump line of the Zimbabwean's with a
variety of entertaining shots, some of which were quite unique. His
partner, Suresh Perera (38), was also in fine form. Returning to
competitive cricket he showed why he is rated so highly as a promising
allrounder with some classy shots, two of which sailed over the
boundary for six.
Whilst the Sri Lankan's continued to bat on the Zimbabwean's slowed
the game down to a crawl. Gavin Rennie bowling some of the slowest
overs of left arm spinners ever witnessed. Frustration started to
creep in to the visitors cricket though and at least four catches were
dropped. Tiredness may well be starting to take its toll.
Once the declaration did finally arrived it was clear that they
Zimbabean's would not try to win the game. A target of 210-230 would
have been chased but a run rate in excess of 5 runs per over was just
two much on a pitch that was now turning sharply.
Even though they lost Alester Maragwede (4) early on, when he was
caught by a juggling Sangakkara behind the stumps, they survived
without much trouble until tea and never looked like losing
thereafter. Despite mass appealing from the Sri Lankan's and some fine
attacking spin bowling from Dinuk Hettiarachchi the visitors lost only
four wickets. They will now travel to Galle for the second test
undefeated when they could have lost two.