SRI LANKA is in the Caribbean to play three Test matches against West Indies, starting with the first Test on June 6th at the Queen’s Park Oval in Trinidad. This will be followed by the Second Test at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground on June 14th. The Third and final Test will be a day and night fixture starting on June 23rd at Kensington Oval in Barbados, where Sri Lanka will be playing for the first time.
The Barbados fixture will the first day-night Test match to be hosted in the Caribbean.
This is Sri Lanka’s fourth Test Series in the Caribbean, having first visited in 1997 and losing the two-match Series 1-0. They returned in 2003 and ended with similar results in another two-match Series. In 2008, the drawn two-match Series included Sri Lanka’s historic maiden Test wins at Providence Stadium in Guyana on their fifth attempt in the Caribbean.
In 2017 both teams suffered massive defeats as well as successfully chasing down big fourth innings totals.
Early in the year, Sri Lanka lost matches by 282 runs, and by an innings and 118 runs to the home team, South Africa, who made a clean sweep of the three-match series. They drew their two-match home series against Bangladesh 1-1 after winning the first Test by 259 runs. Against Zimbabwe in a one-off Test match at home, Sri Lanka chased down their massive target of 388 to win by four wickets. This was the highest any team has successfully chased in Asia. In fact, in that incredible match, all four innings produced totals in excess of 300 – Zimbabwe (356 and 377); Sri Lanka (346 and 391 for 6). At home against India, Sri Lanka lost all three Test matches by huge margins – 304 runs, by an innings and 53 runs, and by an innings and 171 runs, before bouncing back in fine fashion against Pakistan in the UAE to take the two-match series 2-0. In the return three-match series against India in India, Sri Lanka kept the defeat margin down to 1-0. During the year, they played 13 Tests, won 4, lost 7 and drew 2.
Also, in 2017, West Indies playing at home, lost to Pakistan 2-1, but the result could have been reversed had it not been for Shannon Gabriel’s moment of madness in the Dominica Test match. Away against England, West Indies lost by the same margin with their victory coming out of the blue in the second Test which they won by five wickets after successfully chasing down a 322-target. In that Test Shai Hope was the hero, becoming the first batsman to score twin hundreds (147 & 118*) at Headingley, Leeds in first-class cricket. In Zimbabwe, West Indies won the two-match series 1-0 before travelling to New Zealand where they lost both Tests by large margins. During the year, they played 10 Tests, won 3, lost 6 and drew 1.
The two nations have gone head-to-head in Test cricket 17 times, Sri Lanka (6th in the ICC Test Rankings) winning 8 to West Indies 3. Although West Indies is at No.9 in the ICC Test Rankings, they can go into this three-match Series with some confidence from their record at home against the visitors. West Indies have battled Sri Lanka six times in the Caribbean, winning three, losing one with the other two drawn.
Interesting Series
This upcoming series will be an interesting one with West Indies being led by Jason Holder with an overall captaincy record of 21 matches, 4 wins and 13 losses, while Sri Lanka will be led by Dinesh Chandimal with a record which reads 10 matches, 4 wins and 3 defeats.
The following is a snapshot of how the players of both sides have stood up against each other since the two nations first played each other in 1993.
The former West Indies batting maestro, Brian Lara has recorded the most runs against Sri Lanka, scoring 1125 runs during his eight Test matches (14 innings) from 1993 to 2003. That aggregate of runs includes five centuries – the first being 115 at Arnos Vale Ground in St. Vincent in June 1997. Lara went on to complement that first “ton” with 178 at Galle International Stadium in November 2001, 221 and 130 at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in Colombo during that same 2001 Series, and 209 at Beausejour Cricket Ground in Saint Lucia in June 2003. Lara ended his challenges against Sri Lanka with a batting average of 86.53 per innings along with a Strike Rate of 56.99. During the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground Test, Lara’s 351 runs were 54 percent of West Indies runs and by the end of the three Tests which the home team won 3-0, Lara had amassed 688 runs from his six innings. His 221 in the first innings stands as the highest Test score by a touring batsman in Sri Lanka.
Occupying second position in the aggregate of runs is Kumar Sangakkara with 918 runs with an average of 54.00. RamnareshSarwan follows next with 749 runs, while MahelaJayawardene and ThilanSamaraweera make up the top five run-getters with 748 and 644 runs respectively.
Sri Lanka’s world-class right-arm mysterious off-break bowler, MuttiahMuralitharan ended his contests against the West Indies with the most wickets. In twelve matches, he sent down the most overs – 622.3 overs and captured 82 wickets for 1609 runs at an impressive 19.62 runs per wicket to go with an Economy Rate of 2.58 and a Strike Rate of 45.55. Muralitharan, who has bowled the most maidens (143), had his best figures of 16.2-4-46-8 in July 2005 on home soil at Kandy during the 10th Test match between the two nations. That bowling effort is also the Best Bowling Figures in an Innings, which helped Sri Lanka to beat West Indies by 240 runs and clinch the series 2-0.
Muralitharan, who holds the world record for the most Test wickets (800), produced his best match figures of 11 for 170 (6 for 126 and 5 for 44) at the Galle International Stadium during the first Test of the 2001 series. The giant performer also holds the top positions with the most five-wicket hauls (9) in an Innings, and the most 10-wicket hauls (three) in a match.
Chaminda Vaas follows a good distance behind in second position with 55 wickets for 913 runs at a misery average of 16.60 apiece. The most penetrative and successful new-ball bowler Sri Lanka has had, picked up 26 wickets in the three-match series in 2001, with his best performance coming in the final match of that series. In the first innings he captured 7 for 120 and followed that with 7 for 71 in the second – his 14 wickets for 191 runs in the Test being the best match figures by a left-arm pace bowler in the history of the game.
Following Vaas are RanganaHerath with 23 wickets, Jerome Taylor 19, Curtly Ambrose and Corey Collymore 14 each.
Highlights
Other highlights of the Test matches between the two nations include the Highest Innings Total – 627 for 9 declared off 197.0 overs by Sri Lanka at Sinhalese Sports Club Ground in 2001, while the Lowest Innings Total was recorded at the same venue by West Indies who suffered the indignity of being all out for a meagre 113 in 60.0 overs in the first Test of the 2005 series.
The Highest Match Aggregate is 1311 (for the loss of 35 wickets) recorded at Providence Stadium in Guyana where Sri Lanka (476 for 8 declared and 240 for 7 declared) beat the West Indies (280 and 315) by 121 runs in 2008 to register their maiden Test victory on their fifth attempt in the Caribbean.
There have been 19 Centuries recorded in Tests between the two sides, with Brian Lara stamping his authority in owning five of them. The Test matches have also produced 73 half-centuries, with RamnareshSarwan recording the most – 7. The Most Balls Received by a Batsman is 1984 by Brian Lara, while the Highest Individual Score of 333 (spanning 653 minutes, 437 balls, 34 fours and 9 sixes) was recorded by Chris Gayle in the first match at Galle International Stadium during the 2010 series.
The Most Sixes Hit by a Batsman is 10 by Chris Gayle, while Brian Lara leads the way with the Most Fours – 119. The Highest Partnership for any Wicket is 238, and that is a third-wicket stand between DimuthKarunaratne (186) and Dinesh Chandimal (151) during Sri Lanka’s innings victory at Galle International Stadium in 2015.
Mahela Jayawardene occupies the top spot for the Most Catches Taken – 19, while Jermaine Blackwood shares a world record for the Most Catches in an Innings – 5, which was achieved at P Sara Oval during the second and final match of the 2015 series. DeneshRamdin holds the top position with the Most Wicket-Keeping Catches – 25, and the Most Wicket-Keeping Dismissals – 26.
There have been 75 ducks including 22 Golden Ducks (one ball dismissals). Chris Gayle has failed to get off the mark six times, including being dismissed for three golden ducks, and failing to score in three consecutive innings.
The seventeen Test matches have produced a total of 4828.2 overs, 885 maidens, 15199 runs and 501 wickets.
These statistics indicate that West Indies players have had some spectacular individual performances against Sri Lanka, but when it comes to team work, they have not been able to gel together, hence their inability to turn great performances into victory. In this series again, it will be a question of whether the team will play as a unit or as individual stars. Holding home court advantage should be a major advantage, but if there is no unity or team spirit, it will take a sub-par Sri Lanka to go down in defeat.