Splendid rearguard action by Dhananjaya and Embuldeniya tip the scales

Lasith Embuldeniya (left) and Dhananjaya de Silva during their record century partnership for the ninth wicket

• Sri Lanka frustrate West Indies to turn second Test around

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Cometh the hour, cometh the man and Dhananjaya de Silva fitted that description to perfection as he guided Sri Lanka out of trouble, not for the first time in his career, and placed them in a position from defending to save the second Sobers-Tissera Trophy Test to where they can now push forward for a victory at the Galle International Cricket Stadium.

By stumps on the fourth day after another absorbing tussle between bat and ball, Sri Lanka, starting the day at 46/2, three behind West Indies, finished it off with a decisive lead of 279, scoring 328/8 with two wickets still intact.

The day belonged to de Silva, who played a classy knock of 153* off 259 balls, playing to all parts of the ground to hit 11 fours and two sixes. It was his eighth Test century, against seven different opponents, with every single one of them being special. He gave an exhibition of how to play spin bowling on a turning wicket, absorbing the pressure and understanding the importance of when to be extravagant and when to be defensive. Many times, he has rescued Sri Lanka from critical situations, and yesterday’s performance was nothing new to him. He has become Sri Lanka’s ‘crisis man’. While de Silva held up one end, the West Indies, pressing for a series-equalling win were frustrated at the other end by no. 10 batter Lasith Embuldeniya, who put up stubborn resistance to remain unbeaten on 25* scored off 110 balls, the longest he has batted in any first-class match.

In the closing overs of the day, Embuldeniya, who played a gutsy knock, brought up the century stand by hoisting Roston Chase for a six over his head, and at the same time, establishing a new ninth wicket partnership record for the venue. The partnership has so far produced 107 runs and lasted 201 balls.

When Embuldeniya came to the wicket, Sri Lanka were 221/8, leading only by 172, and West Indies at that time had their tails up. But, what a stunning rearguard performance de Silva and Embuldeniya came up with – batting the entire final session to exasperate the West Indies who tried everything to separate them using as many as seven bowlers. It has been de Silva’s batsmanship and Embuldeniya’s resistance that has produced the decisive partnership of the match. The fact that Embuldeniya survived 110 balls tells you something of the Galle pitch. What the scores 204, 253 and 328/8 suggests is that the pitch has gotten easy to play, even on day four, when everyone expected so many things to happen.

It was a tough day in office for the West Indies, who missed out on a golden opportunity to dismiss de Silva when he was on five, when wicket-keeper Joshua Da Silva missed a tough chance off of the persevering Veerasammy Permaul. Sri Lanka, at that stage, had lost the wicket of Charith Asalanka for 19 and were 85/3. What a costly miss it turned out to be for the West Indies. In the final session West Indies were given another opportunity to dismiss de Silva at 117 when he top-edged a slog sweep, but on this occasion Permaul dropped a difficult caught and bowled opportunity as the ball swirled in the air. Pathum Nissanka (66 off 154 balls) and Ramesh Mendis (25 off 58 balls) figured in half-century partnerships with de Silva as Sri Lanka fought hard to set the West Indies a decent target in the fourth innings, but the West Indies kept on chipping away at the wickets, even forcing the injured Angelo Mathews to come out and bat, although his stay at the wicket was rather brief for just five balls. West Indies gained control unassumingly in the Test, until the arrival of Embuldeniya.       

Sri Lanka, mindful that at the start of the year, the Windies had chased down 390 with Kyle Mayers› heroics in Bangladesh, did not risk declaring toward the end of the fourth day, but let the match drift onto the final day, where they have 98 overs to decide on what target to set. Sri Lanka leads the two-match series 1-0.

Dhananjaya de Silva acknowledges the applause from his teammates and the spectators at Galle on reaching his eighth Test hundred

Pathum Nissanka celebrates his fifty