Starting the day on 287/7, West Indies added 67 more runs as Kraigg Braithwaite finished on 126 while Rahkeem Cornwall also completed his half-century.
In reply, Lahiru Thirimanne’s half-century and an unbeaten 59-run stand between Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya de Silva helped Sri Lanka even out the day.
It was another day where the honours were shared. A total of 203 runs were scored for the fall of six wickets in a gripping day of Test cricket.
Kraigg Braithwaite kick-started the day by completing his ninth Test hundred before Rahkeem Cornwall went on to register his second half-century, following up from another in the previous Test. The duo stretched their stand to 103 runs before Suranga Lakmal got the breakthrough. Cornwall chipped straight to mid-on to give the ace Sri Lankan fast bowler his fourth wicket of the game.
Braithwaite added a few more runs before Dushmantha Chameera picked up the final two wickets and finished with a total of three scalps. He had Kemar Roach caught-behind before Braithwaite chopped one back onto his stumps. West Indies wrapped up for 354 on the stroke of lunch. It was an excellent recovery and a solid effort from the West Indies skipper and the lower order to help the side recover from 222/7 and get to a good first innings total.
In reply, Sri Lanka’s two openers started in contrasting fashion. Lahiru Thirimanne started off solidly and confidently as he defended well and put away the bad balls with ease. On the other hand, skipper Dimuth Karunaratne’s struggles continued as he endured another low score. He edged one off Alzarri Joseph to gully, where Nkrumah Bonner took a one-handed stunner.
That was the only breakthrough that West Indies could manage in the second session. They bowled well and kept things really tight. There were a few close calls as well as a couple of LBW decisions that were struck down and turned out to be the umpire’s call on review. Both of those decisions went in favour of Oshada Fernando. At the other end, Thirimanne continued to be fluent and was consistently ticking the scoreboard.
The visitors went into Tea as the happier side as they managed to lose just one wicket and put on 60 runs on the board. Thirimanne was batting on 40 while Fernando was unbeaten on 18. However, only in the second over post the Tea break, Kyle Mayers had Fernando LBW, and a few overs later, Thirimanne completed his third half-century in a row. However, Roach knocked over Thirimanne’s stumps in the 36th over to give West Indies the edge. Thirimanne went for the drive, but Roach, who got the ball to nip back into the left-hander from round-the-wicket, induced the inside-edge which knocked over the stumps.
At 77/3, Sri Lanka found themselves in trouble once again. But the pair of Dinesh Chandimal and Dhananjaya de Silva was stoic and battled hard. The West Indies bowlers came hard, with short balls and words from Jason Holder in the cordon, but the Chandimal-de Silva duo weathered the storm and saw off the day without too much trouble. They batted for 153 balls and added 59 runs for the fourth wicket.
Chandimal finished unbeaten on 34 from 80 balls in a knock that included five boundaries. On the other hand, de Silva is batting on 23 off 95 balls, and his knock had just one boundary. Three West Indies bowlers took a wicket each as Sri Lanka ended the day on 136/3.
Stumps Day 2: Sri Lanka 136/3 (Thirimanne 55, Chandimal 34*, Mayers 1/6) trail West Indies 354 (Brathwaite 126, Cornwall 73, Mayers 49, Lakmal 4-94, Chameera 3-69) by 218 runs
