West Indies go down by 164 as Sri Lanka retain Sobers-Tissera trophy
ICC World Test Championship 2021/22
Day 5, 2nd Test: Sri Lanka 204 and 328-8; West Indies 253 and 132
Venue: Galle International Stadium
Result: Sri Lanka won by 164 runs
Scoreboard: https://www.windiescricket.com/matches/209558/
West Indies suffered a batting collapse which saw then lose their last eight wickets for 40 runs to come out on the losing end. Set a victory target of 297, the visitors were at one stage 92-2 but fell to the Sri Lankan spinners and lost the match by a big margin. The home team won the series 2-0 following their victory by 187 runs in the first Test to keep hold of the Sobers-Tissera trophy.
Spinners Ramesh Mendis and Lasith Embuldeniya took five wickets each to propel their team to the win. Embuldeniya had best figures of 5-35 while Mendis recorded 5-66, and ended with 11 wickets in the match.
West Indies lost the first second innings wicket with the total on 15 when skipper Kraigg Brathwaite (6) was trapped in front by Mendis. Then Nkrumah Bonner joined Jermaine Blackwood and the pair added 50 runs for the second wicket before Blackwood (36) was caught by Dhananjaya de Silva off Embuldeniya in the last ball before lunch break.
When Mendis had Shai Hope (16), West Indies’ score stood at 92-3, but it triggered the late collapse. Bonner was again defiant and top scored for the West Indies with 44, which came off 143 balls in three hours at the crease. He ended the series as the leading batsman for West Indies with 148 runs at an average of 49.33 per innings.
Speaking after the match, captain Kraigg Brathwaite said:
“Batting-wise we let ourselves down, we just didn’t get big enough totals to put enough pressure on Sri Lanka. It was good to see (Veerasammy) Permaul coming back into the team after a couple years and getting his first five-wicket haul. Overall, I thought all the spinners put in some really good work, with Roston Chase getting a five-for and Jomel Warrican getting a four-for here. We also saw some good betting from (Nkrumah) Bonner and Joshua (Da Silva).”
Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka declared their second innings on 345-9. Dhananjaya de Silva was unbeaten on 155 and his overnight partner Embuldeniya was out for 39 bowled by Jason Holder. De Silva faced 262 balls and hit two sixes and 11 boundaries in scoring his eighth test century. Left-arm spinner Veerasammy Permaul had the best bowling figures of 3-106 while off-spinner Roston Chase took 2-82.
–CWI
