West Indies vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan driving during his top score of 80. (Picture by Brooks LaTouche.)

by Haydn Gill in Guyana

IT WAS an all too familiar script.

After they were subjected to almost two days' toil in the field while their opponents piled up an imposing total, West Indies wasted the luxury of a pitch that held no terrors and offered an inept response on the third day of the opening Digicel Test against Sri Lanka here yesterday.

It required the assured Ramnaresh Sarwan with a quality 80 in his first Test match in ten months, 30 odd each from the incapacitated Ryan Hinds and Denesh Ramdin, and useful runs in the lower order from Sulieman Benn and Jerome Taylor to leave West Indies with a battling chance of saving the follow-on.

From a post-lunch position of 109 for five, a final total of 269 for nine represented something of a fightback, but it is clear that it will be a struggle for West Indies to avoid defeat over the remaining two days when local fans will benefit from a "two-for-one" special admission charge to the ground.

There was nothing threatening about the Sri Lanka bowling to suggest that West Indies should find themselves in this position, though both Sri Lanka's world-class bowlers, Muttiah Murilatharan and Chaminda Vaas, snared three wickets.

Some of the batsmen needed to follow the example of Sarwan, who looked confident during the four-and-a-half hours he spent in the middle carefully constructing an innings that promised a hundred on his return to Test cricket.

For part of the day, the contributions of Hinds, Ramdin and Benn offered another disappointing crowd in the stands a ray of hope, but the shoddy dismissals of Devon Smith, Marlon Samuels and Shivnarine Chanderpaul hurt West Indies' cause.

There was an element of carbon-copy in the way Smith and Samuels edged balls to the keeper that were wide of the mark and should have been left alone against the left-arm fast bowler Thilan Thushara, making his second Test appearance in four years.

Those two went inside the first 40 minutes and just when there was a sign of a recovery during a partnership between Sarwan and Chanderapaul, the latter was the victim to an uncharacteristic stroke in which he gave a catch to short mid-off against Muralitharan.

Muralitahran had a long bowl, but the world leader wasn't all that complicated during his 38 overs in which he also had the wickets of Hinds and Dwayne Bravo.

Bravo was, however, unable to pick him and never suggested permanency. After offering a chance to slip just before lunch, he perished soon after the break, falling lbw to one that rushed onto him as he shuffled across his stumps.

For an hour-and-a-half, Sarwan and Hinds were together in a sixth-wicket partnership of 53 that represented the most productive stand of the day.

Hinds, batting at No. 7 with a runner because of a strained hamstring he picked up on the first day that kept him off the field for the entire second day, looked comfortable during the two hours he spent at the crease compiling 37.

His resistance ended 15 minutes after tea when he edged a defensive prod against Muralitharan to give wicket-keeper Prasanna Jayawardene one of his four catches.

Ramdin played through back pain for more than an hour-and-a-half to gather 38 before edging a loose drive while Benn also scored a confident 28, going by the run out route.

This left West Indies 252 for nine, but Taylor and Powell batted out the final half-hour, still needing eight hours to avoid the follow-on.

SCOREBOARD:

SRI LANKA 1st Innings 476-8 decl'd

WEST INDIES 1st Innings

(overnight 29-1)

*C. Gayle lbw b Vaas 0

D. Smith c wk P. Jayawardene b Thushara 14

R. Sarwan c wk P. Jayawardene b Vaas 80

M. Samuels c wk P. Jayawardene b Thushara 5

S. Chanderpaul c Warnapura b Muralitharan 23

D. Bravo lbw b Muralitharan 8

R. Hinds c wk P. Jayawardene b Muralitharan 37

+D. Ramdin c Sangakkara b Vaas 38

S. Benn run out 28

J. Taylor not out 22

D. Powell not out 6

Extras (lb4, nb4) 8

TOTAL (9 wkts – 106 overs) 269

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-46, 3-58, 4-99, 5-109, 6-162, 7-193, 8-236 9-252.

Bowling: Vaas 22-7-45-3, Thushara 20-3-59-2, Dilshan 1-0-2-0, Muralitharan 38-6-104-3 (nb2), Herath 25-6-55-0 (nb2).

Position: West Indies need another eight runs to avoid the follow-on with one wicket in hand.

Umpires: Simon Taufel (Australia), Billy Bowden (New Zealand). TV replays: Clyde Duncan (Guyana). Fourth official: Goaland Greaves (St Vincent).

Match referee: Chris Broad (England).

England 1st innings 253

New Zealand 1st Innings 168

England 2nd Innings

(Overnight 91-2)

Alastair Cook c McCullum b Patel 37

Michael Vaughan c McCullum b Martin 4

Andrew Strauss not out 173

Kevin Pietersen c Taylor b Vettori 34

Ian Bell c Sinclair b Vettori 110

Paul Collingwood c and b Vettori 22

Tim Ambrose not out 28

Extras (3lb,1w,4nb) 8

TOTAL (for five wickets) 416

Overs: 122. Batting time: 479 minutes.

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-77, 3-140, 4-327, 5-361.

Still to bat: Stuart Broad, Ryan Sidebottom, Monty Panesar, James Anderson.

Bowling: Chris Martin 18-2-60-1 (1w), Tim Southee 24-5-84-0, Grant Elliott 14-1-58-0, Jeetan Patel 26-4-76-1, Daniel Vettori 40-6-135-3 (4nb).

Umpires: Daryl Harper, Australia, and Rudi Koertzen, South Africa.

TV umpire: Evan Watkin. Match referee: Javagal Srinath, India.

Toss: won by England.

Series: Three-match series tied 1-1.