West Indies batsmen build steadily

An all-round performance from West Indies ensured they were poised to take the upper hand

against Sri Lanka at the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain. After some wayward bowling on the first day, West Indies regrouped to dismiss Sri Lanka for 278 before their batsmen scored at a steady clip to reach 133 for 1 by tea, trailing by 145 runs.

The day began with Sri Lanka on 217 for 5 and another 100 runs would have resulted in a comfortable first-innings total on a pitch that offered movement to the fast bowlers. West Indies, however, were superb in the field and their bowlers were rewarded for a disciplined performance - five wickets for 61 runs - against an impatient Sri Lankan batting line-up. Then their batsmen pushed Sri Lanka on the back foot, not only by scoring boundaries but also by running urgently between the wickets, an approach which was in contrast to Sri Lanka earlier in the morning.

Sri Lanka's batsmen came out swinging but the aggressive approach, which produced excellent results on the first evening, did not come off. Tillakarate Dilshan had run West Indies ragged last evening, cutting and pulling with abandon, and he began the same way by lashing Fidel Edwards to the point boundary. However, he played one attacking shot too soon and miscued a pull off the third ball of the morning, Denesh Ramdin ran to square leg to take the catch. Chaminda Vaas too fell to a top-edged hook, which was once again held by Ramdin.

With two wickets gone for seven runs, Chamara Silva was in danger of running out of partners. A lull followed as Sri Lanka went 21 balls without scoring before Silva began to accelerate, flicking Edwards to the fine-leg boundary before bringing up his fifty with a scorching cut. Thilan Thushara concentrated on blocking and stuck around for 21 balls before a direct hit from Ramnaresh Sarwan caught him short. Muttiah Muralitharan lasted only three deliveries; he top-edged his first ball over the wicketkeeper, slogged his second to the midwicket boundary and sliced his next to third man where Bravo judged the catch to perfection.

With No. 11 for company, Silva went after the bowling, throwing his bat at anything wide to score at a brisk rate. West Indies could have ended the innings on 267 but Jerome Taylor dropped a simple caught-and-bowled off Silva.

A meandering passage of play followed with Silva refusing singles and trying to shield Ishara Amerasinghe from the strike. As West Indies strived to end the partnership, Jerome Taylor sent down a beamer to Silva and had to be taken out of the attack because he had already bowled one at Dilshan last evening. Sri Lanka's innings ended via another top-edged pull from Silva and Powell held a well judged catch at long leg.

There was doubt over whether Chris Gayle would open given his troubles against Vaas and he ended the speculation by coming out with Sewnarine Chattergoon. Vaas consistently seamed the ball away from Gayle and beat the outside edge of the left-hander's bat regularly. However, Gayle took on Amerasinghe, clipping him off the back foot to the midwicket boundary and pulling past mid-on in his first over. He drilled consecutive boundaries through the offside off Amerasinghe's second over but received a reprieve immediately after when Muttiah Muralitharan dived full stretch to his left at mid-on but couldn't hang on to a lofted drive even though he got both hands to it.

With Amerasinge proving expensive, Mahela Jayawardene brought on Thushara and Gayle tucked in, lofting him to long on before slogging to midwicket. West Indies scored 49 before the lunch break but lost Gayle for 45 soon after the resumption when he steered Thushara straight to gully.

Gayle had been doing the bulk of the scoring but Sarwan ensured that there was no break in the momentum by batting aggressively from the start. He began with a fierce cut to third man and concentrated on playing the inswingers from Vaas late, using the movement into him to push the ball through the leg side. He was also strong through the off, driving Thushara to long-on and then cover-driving to bring up the 100 in only the 18th over.

While Sarwan began at nearly a run-a-ball, the debutant opener Chattergoon started his innings patiently. He didn't try anything fancy and focused on rotating the strike. His first boundary came via an upper cut over slips and then he steered Vaas through point. Even Muralithraran, who was introduced in the 19th over, failed to make a breakthrough as the batsmen kept taking singles to keep the run-rate over four. Chattergoon had added 75 runs with Sarwan before rain forced the umpires to take tea early in Trinidad.