Video courtesy of powen001.
Victory! How sweet is it once more? After more than 2 years in between victories, the Windies win their second Test in just over 3 months. Baby steps, but from a team that didn't win a Test in over two years, it's progress. A magnificent 102 by vice-captain Ramnaresh Sarwan and a gritty 86n.o. from Shiv Chanderpaul took the Windies home to victory after the top order wobbled at 73-3. Man-of-the-Match Sarwan made scores of over fifty in each of the four innings of the series and was named Man-of-the-Series for his efforts.
A target of 253, even on a decent pitch, would have almost certainly been too much for the Windies in times past, but not today. Sarwan's and Chanderpaul's match winning partnership of 157 was a study in how to go about a run chase. Both Guyanese ran hard between the wickets, taking singles where possible and always putting the Lankans under pressure. Sarwan, in particular, dispatched the bad delivery with ruthlessness and they never allowed the visitors to get the upper hand as they kept the score board ticking over. Sri Lanka badly missed the injured Lasinth Malinga as the two inexperienced pacers Ishara Amerasinghe and Thilan Thushara failed to trouble the batsmen. Muralitharan eventually took the wicket of Sarwan after an otherwise unsuccesful day, but by then the match was effectively over.
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