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| June 27, 2003 | Friday | Rabi-us-Sani 26,1424 |
Sri Lankans sweat over Lara’s form
KINGSTON (Jamaica), June 26: Sri Lanka go into the second and final Test against the West Indies here on Friday hoping to avoid further punishment from in-form Brian Lara.
Lara hammered 209 in the drawn first match in St Lucia on Tuesday to become only the fifth batsman to score five or more double-centuries in Tests.
Australian Don Bradman, Englishman Walter Hammond, Pakistani Javed Miandad and Sri Lankan Marvan Atapattu are the others to have achieved the feat.
Sri Lanka suffered the most in recent years from Lara who has already compiled five hundreds against them in as many Tests, including two double-centuries.
Sri Lankan captain Hashan Tillekeratne conceded his bowlers need to get Lara’s wicket cheaply in order to put pressure on the West Indies in the second Test.
“We have a lot of respect for Brian and he has been batting very well. He’s is brilliant batsman, but we’ll have to raise our bowling standards,” he said.
Lara has been dominating the Sri Lankan attack since 1997 when he cracked 115 in the second Test at St Vincent.
The gifted left-hander was in awesome form in the next Test series against the same opponents four years later, scoring 178, 221 and 130 in Sri Lanka to aggregate 688 in three matches.
Lara again returned to haunt the Sri Lankans, cracking his 21st Test hundred in the first Test of the current series.
Top off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan looked the best Sri Lankan bowler, but failed to keep pressure on the West Indian batting superstar for long spells despite grabbing five wickets.
“Murali and Vaas bowled well (in the first Test), but not our back-up bowlers,” said Tillekeratne.
Lara said he was happy to score runs against Muralitharan, but other batsmen needed to put in an improved performance.
“It was vital for me to get runs, especially against Murali,” said Lara.
“It was a great contest. It was nice to get some runs, but some of our players will have to perform better because he (Muralitharan) is going to be coming at us strong in the next match,” said Lara.
The West Indies captain said he was keen to play another long innings against Sri Lanka.
“I’d like another one here,” he said.
“It’s a one-off game now. The team what plays better is going to win and we’ll want to be that team.”
The West Indies made one change from the team that drew the first Test, including uncapped paceman Fidel Edwards in place of reserve wicket-keeper Carlton Baugh.
Teams (from):
West Indies: Brian Lara (captain), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Omari Banks, Corey Collymore, Mervyn Dillon, Vasbert Drakes, Fidel Edwards, Daren Ganga, Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Ridley Jacobs, Marlon Samuels, Devon Smith, Jerome Taylor.
Sri Lanka (from): Hashan Tillekeratne (captain), Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, Romesh Kaluwitharana, Kumar Sangakkara, Tillekeratne Dilshan, Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Thilan Samaraweera, Kaushal Lokuarachchi, Kumar Dharmasena, Prabath Nissanka, Darshana Gamage, Dinusha Fernando, Thilan Thushara Mirando.
Umpires: Darrell Hair (Australia) and Russell Tiffin (Zimbabwe).
TV umpire: Eddie Nicholls (West Indies).
Match referee: Wasim Raja (Pakistan).—AFP
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