Rain, No Play

Video courtesy of powen001.  read more »

Chasing a target of 437 for victory, West Indies could only hope for a draw by the middle of the second session as the batsmen failed to make the most of a very good start to the day by Bravo and Sarwan. Resuming at 96/1, both batsmen acquitted themselves well in taking the score to 156 before Bravo was C&B by Muralitharan for 83.

At 156/2, Sarwan well set and Samuels, Chanderpaul and Gayle to come, a draw was very much still in the cards. West Indies failed to solidify their position, however, as wickets fell at regular intervals. Samuels was next to go - caught behind off Chaminda Vaas. And when Chanderpaul was beaten all over the place by a Vaas incutter, the prospect of a draw all but dissipated.  read more »

At stumps on Day four of the first test between West Indies and Sri Lanka, the home side continued the promise shown at the end of the previous day, leaving themselves with a fairly reasonable chance of securing a draw.

Resuming this morning in hopes of avoiding the follow on, Jerome Taylor and Daren Powell saw the Windies through to 280 forcing the Sri Lankas to return to the crease. By mid-evening, the tourists declared their second innings at 240/7 leaving West Indies 437 from 113 overs to win.

Given his run of poor form against Chaminda Vaas, captain Chris Gayle opted to send Bravo in his stead to open the innings with Devon Smith. Sri Lanka sniffed a chance to make some serious inroads before stumps as Smith was caught attempting to play a hook shot with the score on 22. Sarwan then joined Bravo to steady the ship until the close as both managed to play without much trouble and at a rate quick enough to keep alive any minute chance of a West Indian victory.  read more »

Marlon Samuels has been drafted into the West Indies side to replace the injured captain Ramnaresh Sarwan, who has been sent home. Sarwan had injured his shoulder during last week's Test at Headingley when he dived into the advertising boards trying to save a boundary. Presumably, vice captain Daren Ganga will be elevated to the captaincy.

The issue of who should replace Sarwan once again raised the spectre of insularity in the region. Barbadian Tony Cozier called for Barbadian Ryan Hinds to be drafted in the squad. This ruffled the feathers of a few Jamaican commentators who argued that the Jamaican Samuels should be the choice, often hinting that Cozier's choice was because he and Hinds are Bajan, while dismissing that a similar claim could be made against them.  read more »

[ Photo courtesy of www.stanford2020.com ]

Somewhere along the road to the presumed elevation of Windies' vice captain Ramnaresh Sarwan to the top post, rumor has it that his dream might be derailed.  read more »