Pathum Nissanka saved the West Indies at bay, with Sri Lanka limping to the shut at 250 for eight in reply to the house aspect’s first-innings complete of 354 on a rain-affected third day of the second and closing Test in Antigua on Wednesday. Bursting with confidence following a debut hundred within the first Test on the identical venue only a week earlier, the 22-year-old right-hander defied the Caribbean pacers in compiling an unbeaten 49. It gave guests some hope of continuous to whittle away at what’s probably a essential first-innings lead for the West Indies going into day 4.
Nissanka’s willpower for nearly three hours, wherein he confronted 119 deliveries and stroked 4 boundaries, might but show useful for Sri Lanka ought to the opposite in a single day batsman, Lasith Embuldeniya, and final man Vishwa Fernando replicate the resistance proven by the West Indian decrease order of their first innings.
Before the showers rolled in although, quick bowler Shannon Gabriel produced essentially the most spectacular effort of the day, producing the uncooked, sustained velocity which rattled the Sri Lankans on multiple event on their final tour of the area in 2018.
Wicketless and out of types within the first Test, Gabriel lastly claimed his first wicket of the sequence within the morning session, firing up disconcerting tempo to account for Dinesh Chandimal whereas Dhananjaya de Silva fell to the occasional off-spin of Jermaine Blackwood.
Resuming on the in a single day place of 136 for 3, Chandimal and Dhananjaya had been instantly challenged by the constant hostility of Gabriel.
Chandimal was fortunate to flee when a diving Rahkeem Cornwall couldn’t maintain on to catch at first slip however the former captain’s luck ran out when, unsettled by a blow on the hand earlier within the over, he couldn’t management a hook shot to a lifting supply on the physique and substitute fielder Hayden Walsh Jr accomplished the comfy catch at deep square-leg to take away Chandimal for 44.
His fifth-wicket partnership with De Silva was value 75 runs.
– Rare wicket for Blackwood –
With the lunch interval beckoning West Indies had even larger trigger for celebration when De Silva was adjudged leg-before for 39 to the primary supply of the morning bowled by Blackwood.
Although the batsman trudged off the sector dejectedly, tv replays of the dismissal confirmed that the choice would have been overturned had he opted for a DRS referral.
Holder eliminated Niroshan Dickwella to a catch behind whereas Suranga Lakmal gave Alzarri Joseph his second wicket of the innings through a easy catch to West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite at mid-on in a truncated afternoon interval.
Promoted
When Holder claimed his second wicket by extracting Dushmantha Chameera, the West Indies had been doubly eager to push on from that place of 231 for eight to wrap up the innings earlier than the top of play.
However Nissanka’s calm assurance, Embuldeniya’s resistance and, most significantly, the return of the rains, which resulted in solely 42 overs being bowled within the day, left the West Indies with a job to complete on the penultimate morning.
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