da brwin： A day that started with anti-climax, when hometown hero Muttiah Muralitharannarrowly failed to become the third man in history to take ten wickets in aninnings, ended with Sri Lanka in a now familiar position of dominance inthis one-sided Test
Charlie Austin05-Jan-2002A day that started with anti-climax, when hometown hero Muttiah Muralitharannarrowly failed to become the third man in history to take ten wickets in aninnings, ended with Sri Lanka in a now familiar position of dominance inthis one-sided Test series.With the Sri Lankan top order rallying around their captain SanathJayasuriya, who scored a brilliant hundred, the hosts quickly overhauledZimbabwe’s 236 first innings total to finish the day on 334 with an alreadyuseful lead of 98.But, as well as Jayasuriya played for his 139, an innings that spanned eightminutes short of five hours, events on the field were dominated byMuralitharan’s failure to capture the last wicket in the morning.The off-spinner, hampered by torn ligaments in his ring finger dislocatedthe night before, would have surpassed fellow off-spinner Jim Laker’s tenfor 53 against Australians in 1956 if Russel Arnold had not fumbled a simplebat-pad catch off the first ball of the day. Then, fifth ball, Muralitharanspun an off-break sharply back into the pads of Travis Friend only to seeumpire Venkatraghavan rule in the batsman’s favour.Next over, Vaas ran through the motions, bowling gentle medium pace atnumber 11 Henry Olonga. But the dreadlocked tailender couldn’t resist aswipe the left-armers last ball and was caught behind by Kumar Sangakkara.There was a stifled appeal and a moment of silence – when the Sri Lankanplayers wondered whether they could just ignore the final wickets fall -before umpire Asoka de Silva was forced to raise his finger.Nevertheless, it was a wonderful performance for the first innings of a Testmatch, when the pitch offered him turn but very little bounce. He finishedwith nine for 51, still the fifth best figures in 124 years of Test cricket,making him only the second man to take nine wickets in an innings twice -again pipped by Laker who completed the feat twice in a game.Should he be able to bowl in the second innings, which he intends to do evenif he is in severe pain, he has a great chance to become the first bowler totake ten ten-fors in Test cricket.Sri Lanka’s batsman then showed just how true this pitch was as theygalloped past Zimbabwe’s total in just two sessions with only MarvanAtapattu – ironically the man the selectors, three of whom have nowresigned, wanted to rest – failing as he was trapped lbw for nine by TravisFriend (11 for one).Jayasuriya and Sangakkara added 71 for the second wicket with the stylishSangakkara, playing on his old school ground, leading the way with a flurryof elegant boundaries in a run a ball 42.But Sri Lanka’s 24-year-old number three missed out on a fifty inunfortunate circumstances as he hit his own wicket whilst trying to kick theball away from his stumps after a missing an attempted pull off Friend (82for two).But there was no respite for the visitors during an entertaining afternoonas Jayasuriya started to assert himself and with Mahela Jayawardene tickingalong serenely. Zimbabwe tried to stem the flow of runs with defensive fieldsettings but their bowlers erred in their line and length too frequently andthe boundaries flowed.Zimbabwe also dropped two chances. Andy Flower failed to hold on to adifficult leg-side catch from Jayawardene despite a sprawling second graband skipper Stuart Carlisle completely misjudged a simple catch at mid onwhen Jayasuriya had made just 60.Jayawardene’s miss didn’t prove costly, as he was trapped lbw soon afterreaching his 13th Test fifty (202 for three), but Jayasuriya’s did, as theleft-hander cruised towards his ninth Test ton with a typicallyauthoritative clump over mid-wicket – one of 17 fours he hit in his 212-ballknock.But just when he was looking like he was going to cut loose, as he smashedOlonga for a towering six over wide long on, he swept a delivery from GrantFlower straight into the hands of square leg (273 for four).Then, Russel Arnold batted doggedly for nearly three hours for his 44,adding 61 runs with Hashan Tillakaratne, who once again looked in primeform, before the close of play.