Lara shines in tame draw

Brian Lara managed to inject some excitement into an otherwise meaningless last day's play of the 1st Test match in St. Lucia. Resuming on 93, the West Indian captain went on to play a magnificent innings of 209. It was his third consecutive hundred against the Sri Lankans and his second double hundred in three innings. The innings consisted of 24 fours and 1 six.

Early in the day's play, Lara was mis-stumped by Kaluwitharana off Muralitharan when he was on 94. Samuels (8) was later stumped off the same bowler and Jacobs (13) LBW. The new batsman, Banks struggled initially against Murali, but grew in confidence and put on 136 runs for the 7th wicket with Lara.

Lara brought up his 200 with a lofted boundary and promptly hit the following delivery out of the stadium. He was then dismissed in the next over playing a tired pull shot off Nissanka. Dillon (2) and Collymore (0) came and went but Jerome Taylor (9 not out) stuck around long enough to allow his partner Omari Banks to get to his maiden Test half-century. Immediately after the achievement was realized, Lara declared the innings closed at 477/9. Muralitharan finished with creditable figures of 5/138.

Sri Lanka, facing a deficit of 123 runs on first innings saw no problems as Jayasuriya (73 not out) and Atapattu (50 not out) were unseparated in an opening partnership of 126. Both batsmen played a variety of superbly-timed and attractive strokes in the stand. The match however petered out to a predictable draw when the game was called off at 5:23pm.

Brian Lara was name Man of the Match.

Score Summary:-
Sri Lanka 1st innings 354 all out (Atapattu 118, Sangakkara 56; Collymore 5/66, Gayle 2/22, Hinds 2/28)
West Indies 1st innings 477/9 dec. (Lara 209, Hinds 113, Banks 50*; Muralitharan 5/138)
Sri Lanka 2nd innings 126/0 (Jayasuriya 73*, Atapattu 50*

Result: Match Drawn.

The 2nd Test match begins on Friday at Sabina Park.

Posted by Liam