da betcris： Left-hand opener Chris Gayle powered his way towards a century, but rainintervened again on the second day of the West Indies last practice game atMatara on Friday
da lvbet： Charlie Austin09-Nov-2001Left-hand opener Chris Gayle powered his way towards a century, but rainintervened again on the second day of the West Indies last practice game atMatara on Friday.Dark clouds had skirted menacingly around this coastal ground all day beforefinally encircling during the tea interval and forcing the abandonment ofthe final session.West Indies, though disappointed to have missed two precious hours ofbatting practice, would have been delighted by what play there was.Sri Lanka A started the day on 216-5, but added only 53 more runs, asleg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine picked up three wickets, to finish with fourin the innings.Then, on a easy paced pitch, the West Indian openers, Gayle and Daren Ganga,provided fresh hope that they may be able to bridge the large void left bythe retirement of Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge, when they added 134runs for the first wicket.The pair, complimenting each other by their contrasting styles, hurtledalong at nearly five runs an over. Ganga was solid in defense, preferring towork singles and rotate the strike, whilst Gayle’s innings was ruthlesslyhigh-powered.Gayle, who has played 11 Tests to date at 36.35 and has lofty ambitions (hesaid recently that "breaking Lara’s Test record of 375 is my ultimate"), maylook slightly awkward because of his great height and hunched stance, butwith little flourish he hits the ball with thunderous power.He finished the day four runs short of his century having scored 96 off 92balls and hit 17 fours. Ganga, dismissed for a duck in the first warm-upgame, is on 27 off the same number of balls.The pair coped easily with a Sri Lankan bowling attack, which has beenpacked full of fast bowlers on a bland pitch that cried out for spinners.Sri Lanka A, though, were reluctant to give the West Indian batsmen exposureto spin before next weeks first Test and played just a solitary youngleg-spinner.So, although runs are runs and the manner in which they came were mightyimpressive, the satisfaction gained from this sturdy opening partnership bythe West Indies management should be tempered by the reality that the teamfaces very different challenges ahead.In the morning, the West Indian fast bowlers had operated in tandem with theleg-spin of Ramanarine and quickly moped up the Sri Lankan innings.Suresh Perera had batted with his captain, Hashan Tillakaratne, with unusualresponsibility and added 66 runs for the sixth wicket, but he couldn’tresist the slow bowling of Ramarine and was stumped for 27, as he danceddown the wicket in the wrist spinners first over of the day.Tillakaratne, 74 not out overnight, never regained the fluency of yesterdayand faced 75 balls his 12 runs today, before Reon King picked up his firstwicket of the match.Colin Stuart, who suffered from leg cramps in both legs after his 12 oversyesterday, did not bowl, but that was only because he had been off the fieldfor so long the previous day and he is not considered an injury concern.
