West Indies enforce follow on

The day was a spirit booster for the Caribbean side as they wrapped off the Sri Lankan innings just three runs short to avoid follow on. Their bowlers did a handsome job on the fourth day as Shane Shillingford and Kemar Roach shared seven wickets to help West Indies gain a 202-run lead over Sri Lanka and enforce follow on.

West Indies got their first wicket of the afternoon of Suraj Randiv gifted by Shillingford, later on Dammika Prasad and Jayawardene put up a 72-run stand to help their team along its way for survival. Prasad entertained the audience with his run a bowl 47 run innings including two sweetly struck sixes before Shillingford got rid of him. While Prasad played a beautiful knock and hitting boundaries in regular intervals but just gave his wicket away to Shillingford again when they were 14 runs short to avoid follow on.

Ajantha Mendis was the next man to came and went and soon Sri Lanka ended up just 3 runs short to avoid follow on. The Caribbean skipper took no time to invite the Sri Lankan side to come and bat again. The Sri Lanka openers provided a solid start with both the batsmen making 44 not out at the end of the day with a delicate and sensible batting. Sri Lanka finished on a score of 89/0 with the final day still to go.

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New Zealand enjoying the challenge in India

New Zealand coach Mark Greatbatch praised his side for the dedicated team effort and the fighting spirit they have shown in the past two games. When New Zealand came to India they came fresh from a defeat of 4-0 by Bangladesh, which also questioned whether the World No. 8 side will be able to take all the 20 wickets of the Champion side but the skipper showed that they can do that even by lacking firepower in their pace attack.

Mark Greatbatch also said that they have had a couple of positives from the past games as well, like Brendon McCullum was promoted to opening made a match-saving double hundred and the team played with lot of passion and patience need for a team.

New Zealand had also injured their main seamer during the first game, Hamish Bennett who had bowled only 15 over’s in the game. Still they overcame all the odds to let their performance not decline. New Zealand will be heading towards the final test in Nagpur will positive frame of mind and high spirits.

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Gayle cleared to play in T20 Big Bash

Chris Gayle has now been cleared to play for Western Australia in the T20 Big Bash by WICB. It came as a gift of the triple ton by him against the mighty Sri Lanka. WICB hesitated to give that NOC to Gayle to play for the Western Australia for the past one month.

Chris Gayle will be playing for Retravision Warriors instead of his home side as both the T20 Big Bash and Caribbean T20 Tournament dates will be clashing. Chris Gayle had also not signed any main contract with WICB this year, in the hope that he might be allowed to play in the T20 Big Bash.

He will not be the only Caribbean player playing in the Big Bash, as Dwayne Bravo is also set to return to Victoria and Pollard ready for the matches with South Australia and he is already their practising for the games.

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Paranavitana helped Sri Lanka achieve a draw along with rain

West Indies posted a huge total with Gayle smashing a thundering thriple ton but still West Indies lost a chance to win the game. Sri Lanka played well under pressure to help them draw the game and rain also intervened to add some troubles for West Indies.

Sri Lankan innings started with an early blow from Roach getting Dilshan for 54 and Sangakkara fr just 4 runs. The aggressive Roach raised hopes for the Caribbean’s but soon after there was a drought of wickets for the West Indies as Paranavitana had already settled himself in and Mahela Jayawardene who occupied the crease after the dismissal of the Sri Lankan skipper also chipped in and both played a solid knock.

The Caribbean debutant seamer though maintained consistent line and length in the morning but he lacked pace and firepower the tackle the batsmen. Mahela Jayawardene was solid with his innings as he was moving ahead and he finished his another half century before he was dismissed of part-timer Brendon Nash, while Paranavitana fell short of his century by just five runs.

Sri Lanka had quite a good day with their batsmen chipping in at the right time to get them to a safe slot till the game ended. West Indies though missed a great opportunity to win the game but they surely proved that they cannot be considered easy opponents and can rise to shock their opponents.  

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