Tea Sri Lanka 278 and 151 for 6 (Samaraweera 51*, Vaas 26*) lead West Indies 294 (Sarwan 57, Muralitharan 5-79) by 135 runs.
The second Test at the Queen's Park Oval hung in the balance at the start of the third day,
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waiting for one team to grab the advantage. The West Indies' fast bowlers did exactly that, rattling the Sri Lankan top order to reduce them to 32 for 4. However, Thilan Samaraweera led a dogged fightback and extended Sri Lanka's lead to 135 by tea with four wickets in hand.
That incisive performance came after the West Indian tail had scrapped hard to accumulate a first-innings lead of 16, which effectively turned the Test into a one-innings contest. However, after Sri Lanka had lost their top four batsmen cheaply, Samaraweera was involved in a succession of useful partnerships - 41, 26 and an unbeaten 52 - which propped up Sri Lanka. Given that West Indies will have to bat last on a pitch that's assisting pace and spin, a target of close to 200 will be a tricky one to chase.
It was imperative for West Indies to strike early and they hardly had to wait for Jerome Taylor induced an edge from Malinda Warnapura in the second over, which was taken by Sewnarine Chattergoon at third slip. A risky single and superb athleticism brought West Indies their second wicket. Kumar Sangakkara pushed the ball towards silly mid-off and sprinted through but Taylor was too quick for Michael Vandort and his direct hit left Sri Lanka at 4 for 2.
Sri Lanka needed Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene to consolidate and see off a hostile opening phase but both batsmen failed to deliver. Fidel Edwards came back strongly after going for consecutive fours to force an inside edge from Jayawardene on to his stumps while Sangakkara was cramped for room and cut Daren Powell straight to Marlon Samuels at gully
Sri Lanka were effectively 16 for 4 but Tillakaratne Dilshan approached the situation in the way he knew best. He went after Powell, cutting him for four, lofting him over the square-leg boundary and driving powerfully through cover. The aggression rubbed off on Samaraweera and he made use of the width offered by Edwards to cut twice through point and then drove Taylor through mid-on.
Dilshan continued swinging, hooking and cutting but, like the first innings, one expansive shot too many brought about his dismissal. Jerome Taylor got a ball to swing back into the right-hander, which went through the gap between bat and pad to uproot off stump. Dilshan was gone for 25 off 19 balls after adding 41 for the fifth wicket with Samaraweera. Silva too showed signs of fluency, the highlight being the splendid cover drive off Taylor, but he chased at a wide ball and departed for 13, caught by Samuels at gully.
Sri Lanka were struggling at 99 for 6 and though Samaraweera had started with consecutive boundaries after lunch, he grew circumspect, and the runs dried down as Dwayne Bravo bowled a hat-trick of maiden overs while Taylor and Edwards kept the batsmen hopping at the other end with vicious bouncers. Samaraweera had a bit of luck during the lull, a couple of edges off Bravo fell short of the slips, but he latched on to the scoring opportunities, driving Bravo straight for four in his fourth over.
Samaraweera did not hesitate to rotate the strike either for he had an able partner in Chaminda Vaas, who tried his luck with the pull when faced with the short ball. Together they added 52 runs for the seventh wicket and Samaraweera brought up his half-century off a 100 balls just before the tea break. Their partnership was beginning to assume worrying proportions for West Indies, knowing how hard it would be to chase a sizeable target.
West Indies' tailenders had struggled to gain the lead this morning against probing spells from Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan. In fact, West Indies might have never got the lead had Sri Lanka held their catches. Taylor, who was baffled by Muralitharan, tried to attack and his first attempt to clear the boundary was a miscue which was dropped by Thilan Thushara at mid-off. Denesh Ramdin was also let off, when Chamara Silva couldn't hang on to a hard chance to his right at short cover off Vaas. Had those catches been held, West Indies would have been nine down and two runs in the deficit. Murali also had three close lbw shouts in a row against Ramdin, any of which might have gone his way on another day.
After countless lbw appeals, Vaas finally got one in his favour when he hit Taylor plumb in front with a delivery that bent back into the right-hander. West Indies were 289 for 8 and Murali wrapped up proceedings with a straighter one that found Ramdin's edge to first slip, and a quicker offbreak that struck Daren Powell in front to end West Indies' first innings on 294. Murali finished with figures of 5 for 79, his 63rd five-wicket haul in Tests.
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