West Indies were 20-1 when rain stopped play on Saturday, and the covers remained on the field throughout the following day at the P Sara Oval. One would sincerely hope for the clouds to move far away from the venue in order for the match, which is now poised for an exciting finish on the final day, to arrive at a result.
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However, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews introduced Siriwardana in the 17th over of the day and the left-arm spinner struck in his second over beating Hope by flight and having him stumped by wicketkeeper Kusal Perera.
The 22-yr-previous, who had taken only one wicket in his earlier 23 checks, completed with figures of 6-29 and gave West Indies an incredible probability of tying the 2-check collection.
He brought up his fifty off 90 balls but will have to do a lot more for West Indies to win their first ever Test in Sri Lanka.
The West Indies slipped to 138 for nine before the last-wicket pair of Kemar Roach (13) and Jomel Warrican (20 not out) put on 33 runs to hand a batting lesson to their team-mates.
“All in all, bowling wise and fielding wise, we’ve been very good in this Test match so all we need to do is cap it off with a good batting performance”, Baptiste stressed.
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“We got to look at our games”. I think we need to work on our temperament.
Brathwaite also claimed the wicket of Dilruwan Perera, then dismissed Mathews and number 11 batsman Nuwan Pradeep in successive deliveries to end Sri Lanka’s innings.
But Holder denied the notion that their weakness against spin was exposed in the series, but instead condemned the lack of patience shown by his batsmen. “We are a young team and we have a lot to learn”.
“I wouldn’t say we have a difficulty playing spin”, Holder said. Bravo’s wicket was the key one for Sri Lanka. “It was just a case of we were not patient enough”, said Holder after the loss.
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Siriwardana was named player of the match for 110 runs, including 68 runs in the first innings and five wickets in the match. After day four was washed out, West Indies will need to the make the most of the three sessions on offer today.
