Rain washes out play after Windies strike back

Rain washed out play after lunch as West Indies hit back with the second new ball to reduce Sri Lanka to 273 for eight at the close on the second day of the second Test on Thursday.

The rain, which began during lunch, continued throughout the rest of the day and forced the umpires to abandon play at the Asgiriya International Stadium at 1545 local time (0945 GMT).

Until the second new ball arrived after 80 overs, Sri Lanka were making solid progress with the overnight pair of Hashan Tillakaratne and Tilan Samaraweera batting comfortably.

But the new ball changed all that as Tillakaratne (87) played onto a delivery from Pedro Collins attempting a pull.

The left-hander batted for 245 minutes and faced 174 balls hitting one six and nine fours. His dismissal ended a sixth-wicket partnership of 80 with Samaraweera.

Tillakaratne missed out on a world record by 53 minutes having batted a total of 975 minutes without being dismissed in his last four Test innings.

South African Jacques Kallis holds the record, batting for a total of 1028 minutes without being dismissed.

There was a brief interruption of five minutes when the umpires called for the covers as a slight drizzle started falling and, although the batsmen returned to the pavilion, the West Indies team remained on the field.

SUPERB DELIVERY

When play resumed after the short break, Sri Lanka lost the wickets of Samaraweera and Chaminda Vaas without adding to the score.

Samaraweera edged a superb delivery from a fully fit Merv Dillon to wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs to be dismissed for 29 scored in 122 minutes.

Vaas also went edging Collins to Carl Hooper at second slip without scoring.

Sri Lanka, who had resumed at 193 for five, slipped to 249 for eight after losing three wickets for no runs in 28 balls with the second new ball.

Niroshan Bandaratillake and Nuwan Zoysa prevented any further inroads by West Indies' fast bowlers as they stuck out an undefeated 24-run ninth-wicket partnership.

With the second new ball, left-armer Collins had the remarkable figures of 5-4-5-2 while Dillon's contribution was one for 21 off seven overs.

Sri Lanka lead 1-0 in the three-Test series having won the first Test at Galle by 10 wickets.

Mail Cricket Editor