Wickets tumble in First Test

Sri Lanka relied on veterans Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan to maintain some semblance of discipline in their batting and scrape together a shaky first innings total of 227 at the Singhalese Sports Club.

The visitors take an overall lead of just 73 runs into day three after bad light ended play earlier for a second successive day.

Vaas trapped Xavier Marshall leg before wicket for two, then bowled a similar delivery two balls later to dismiss fellow West Indies rookie Runako Morton for a duck. Vaas and Muralitharan combined for a ninth wicket partnership of 66 to rescued a faltering innings savaged by the West Indies pace attack.

After the West Indies was dismissed for a first innings total of 285 in the first session, Jermain Lawson and Daren Powell led a youthful bowling attack that at one stage reduced Sri Lanka to 113-7.

Lawson led the tourists with four wickets, while Powell and lanky off-spinner Omari Banks claimed two each. Powell’s pace and lift off the pitch accounted for the wickets of Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene before lunch, while Sanath Jayasuriya fell to a bat pad catch off a Lawson ball.

Vaas anchored the lower order before being dismissed for 49 when he cut a delivery from part-time bowler Dwayne Smith into his stumps after an innings of 99 balls. The only batsman who came to terms with the West Indies pace was Kumar Sangakkar, who attacked the bowling to hit five boundaries in his score of 34 before being caught behind off Banks.

Despite the bounty of wickets, Vaas defended the pitch saying the batsmen needed to display a lot more character.

"If we can, we need to restrict them (West Indies) to below 150 tomorrow, he said. But it is going to need a lot of hard work from us if we hope to do that.

Earlier, the West Indies lower order succumbed to the new ball when Sri Lanka fast bowlers Vaas (16.4-3) and Lasith Malinga (14-4) tore through the flimsy resistance. The innings folded in only 35 minutes when Vaas started the slide with some clever bowling.

Vaas trapped skipper Shivnarine Chanderpaul LBW for 69, while Malinga first accounted for Powell with the first delivery of the 88th over and then bowled Banks.

The West Indies is fielding a youthful team this tour after several senior players including Ramnarine Sarwan, Chris Gayle and Brian Lara, the world No 1 batsman, refused to tour Sri Lanka over a contract dispute between the West Indies Cricket Board and the West Indies Players Association.