NORTH SOUND – West Indies endured a wicketless toil before tea, and Oshada Fernando and Lahiru Thirimanne completed half-centuries to bring Sri Lanka back into the first Test.
At the break, Fernando was not out on 79 and Thirimanne was not out on 59, and the Sri Lankans were 148 for one in their second innings on the third day of the match at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium – a lead so far of 46.
Windies captain Kraigg Brathwaite deployed a number of tactics trying to find the breakthrough, but the Caribbean side were unsuccessful in their search for a wicket and Fernando and Thirimanne have so far shared 140 – unbroken – for the second wicket.
Fernando reached his 50 from 51 balls, when he played off-spinner Rahkeem Cornwall into cover for a single, and Thirimanne completed his second half-century of the match from 123 balls, when he turned Brathwaite into square leg for a single.
Fernando and Thirimanne now hold the record for the highest second wicket stand on the ground, erasing the previous mark set by the Australia pair of Simon Katich and Ricky Ponting 13 years ago.
Summarised scores:
SRI LANKA 169 (Lahiru Thirimanne 70, Niroshan Dickwella 32, Dhananjaya 13, Dimuth Karunaratne 12; Jason Holder 17.4-6-27-5, Kemar Roach 3-47) and 148 for one (Oshada Fernando 79 not out, Lahiru Thirimanne 59 not out).
WEST INDIES 271 (Rahkeem Cornwall 61, Joshua da Silva 46, Kyle Mayers 45, John Campbell 42, Nkrumah Bonner 31, Jason Holder 19; Suranga Lakmal 25-9-47-5, Vishwa Fernando 2-52, Dushmantha Chameera 2-71).
(AR)
