Lunch Sri Lanka 253 and 136 for 4 (Mendis 53*, Chandimal 27*, Gabriel 3-22) lead West Indies 300 by 89 runs
Sri Lanka nosedived into crisis early on day four, losing three wickets for 14 runs after resumption, but a confident Kusal Mendis and a lucky Dinesh Chandimal provided stability to the innings. By lunch, the pair was unbeaten, Mendis having strode to 53 off 72 balls, while Chandimal was on 27 off 82. They had pushed Sri Lanka 89 runs into the lead. Much more work remained to be done if they were to set the hosts a challenging target, but for now, these two can be satisfied at having stalled West Indies’ morning surge.
Where during his Trinidad hundred Mendis had had reprieves early in his innings, in this knock he was secure and polished. He thwarted Shannon Gabriel’s short deliveries, defused Miguel Cummins and Kemar Roach, and took a particular liking to Devendra Bishoo’s legspin, which he hit for 18 off 13 balls. As usual he favoured the sweep to the spinners, and scored all but 10 of his total runs through the leg side, the most attractive of his strokes an elegant push off Roach through mid-on, for four. Some of the pressure he exerted on the bowlers, through his positive approach, appeared to suck some of the venom out of the West Indies effort.
Through the series, Mendis has seemed by a distance Sri Lanka’s most accomplished batsman. It is worth mentioning he is also the youngest, at 23.
Chandimal plodded along in comparison. He largely focused on defence, only occasionally venturing a truly aggressive stroke. Even then, he did not manage to connect strongly enough, and in fact had not managed any boundaries by lunch. He was the recipient of two pieces of good fortune in one Shannon Gabriel over, in the final half-hour of this extended session. First, batting on 21, he was struck in front by an angled delivery, raising a big appeal. Umpire Ian Gould turned down the shout because he had heard two noises (and presumably West Indies declined to review for the same reason), but those two noises had been the ball hitting each of his pads. There was no bat involved, and the ball would have gone on to crash into middle and leg.
Two balls later, he was caught in the gully when he failed to defuse a Gabriel bouncer, but was saved – this time by Mendis, who displayed exceptional cricketing awareness, in spotting that Gabriel had bowled a no-ball. Gould seemed to initially give Chandimal out, but was prevailed upon to check the no-ball, after Mendis seemed to tell Chandimal that the bowler had overstepped. The review revealed that Gabriel was indeed a few inches over the line.
Gabriel had also been West Indies’ best bowler during their early salvo. He hit nightwatchman Kasun Rajitha in front of the stumps in the first over of the day and then had Dhananjaya de Silva caught at first slip, attempting an expansive drive. Kemar Roach took the wicket of Mahela Udawatte, who slapped the ball to mid-off to be dismissed for 19.