da brwin： All those present at De Soysa Park Stadium today were robbed of apotentially appetising contest on the final day of this practicematch
Charlie Austin02-May-2000All those present at De Soysa Park Stadium today were robbed of apotentially appetising contest on the final day of this practicematch. Robbed by a Sri Lankan team too concerned about losing andunprepared to take minimal risks in an effort to win the match. Deniedan opportunity to learn from a run chase the players had to settle fortedious and quite pointless last two sessions. Required to score 269in just 56 overs the Zimbawean’s unsurprisingly decided not to chasethe runs, finishing 81-4.Sri Lanka’s unwillingness to set a reasonable target, say something inthe region of 210-220 is really quite inexplicable on a pitch that wasgiving plenty of assistance to their spinners and against a team witha relatively inexperienced top order. One hopes that the approach ofboth sides will improve in the next match. So far we have no resultsfrom the first three matches.Starting the day with a lead of 117 the Sri Lankan openers extendedtheir fine opening partnership to 128. Ian Daniels (52) took over therole of the aggressor this morning and started well. Looking to beexpansive they soon started to struggle against the Zimbabweanspinner’s leg stump line. Neither Daniels nor Kalavitigoda (72) wereable to increase the scoring rate sufficiently and in the 90 minutesthey batted this morning they only scored 50 runs.When Daniels was eventually adjudged LBW off the bowling of RaymondPrice it precipitated a dramatic collapse as the Sri Lankan’s tried toincrease the tempo but only succeeded in losing wickets. Five wicketsfalling for just 16 runs in 28 minutes.However, spurred on by lunch the Sri lankan’s came out in the nextsession all guns blazing, scoring 70 runs from just nine overs. KumarSangakkara (48*) continued his good form of the first innings with asparking 48 from just 37 deliveries. Prepared to improvise and use hisfeet he countered the leg stump line of the Zimbabwean’s with avariety of entertaining shots, some of which were quite unique. Hispartner, Suresh Perera (38), was also in fine form. Returning tocompetitive cricket he showed why he is rated so highly as a promisingallrounder with some classy shots, two of which sailed over theboundary for six.Whilst the Sri Lankan’s continued to bat on the Zimbabwean’s slowedthe game down to a crawl. Gavin Rennie bowling some of the slowestovers of left arm spinners ever witnessed. Frustration started tocreep in to the visitors cricket though and at least four catches weredropped. Tiredness may well be starting to take its toll.Once the declaration did finally arrived it was clear that theyZimbabean’s would not try to win the game. A target of 210-230 wouldhave been chased but a run rate in excess of 5 runs per over was justtwo much on a pitch that was now turning sharply.Even though they lost Alester Maragwede (4) early on, when he wascaught by a juggling Sangakkara behind the stumps, they survivedwithout much trouble until tea and never looked like losingthereafter. Despite mass appealing from the Sri Lankan’s and some fineattacking spin bowling from Dinuk Hettiarachchi the visitors lost onlyfour wickets. They will now travel to Galle for the second testundefeated when they could have lost two.