It was only fitting that a display of brilliance sealed the victory. There may have been a few jitters in the Sri Lankan camp after the stand between Bravo and Sarwan yesterday, when the coach talked about chasing down a record target. But Sri Lanka used all their experience and hung on. Vaas pegged away, got the important wicket of Chanderpaul and picked up his 12th five-wicket haul.
A couple of umpiring decisions were questionable but SL were the deserved winners.
Gayle has to be applauded for his heroic effort. Too bad he was left stranded. He worked to a plan to drop himself to No.6 and nearly justified it with a draw.
Here's Jayawardene at the presentation: "It was a terrific effort from just four specialist bowlers. It was also a terrific effort from those two guys (Vaas and Murali). We're trying to build a pool of 20 guys to pick from and the new guys have done extremely well to prove themselves."
Vaas is the
The best thing to come out of this match for Sri Lanka is Thushara. He got the ball to swing, in around and kept the top order in check. His over to Ramdin has to rank as the best of the match and his five wickets will undoubtedly guarantee him a few more games.
West Indies may contemplate a few changes for Trinidad. Those lining up for places are Ganga, Chattergoon, Jaggernauth and Edwards.
Thanks for your company through this Test. Thanks for all the mails and encouraging feedback. I thoroughly enjoyed bringing this game to you. On behalf of our scorer Chaminda de Silva, and Jamie Alter, this is Kanishkaa Balachandran signing off. Do join us for the Port of Spain Test starting April 3. Cheers!