At one time when the Zimbabweans collapsed for 140 in the first innings it looked as though the Lankans would be home by an innings. But the fact that they fought back and took the homesters into the fifth day speaks volumes for their courage and determination.
If the manner in which they came back is an indication of their ability then the Second Test beginning at the SSC tomorrow should see the Zimbabweans fighting to square the series.
After the very correct Marvan Atapattu made a memorable double hundred (223) which was bolstered by another fine innings from Aravinda de Silva (75) which took Sri Lanka to a imposing score of 469 for 9 declared, off spinning sensation Muttiah Muralitheran spun a web round the opposing batsmen to lure them to destruction.
With this fine mature innings there is no doubt that Atapattu has come to stay as Sri Lanka's number one batsman. He has a fine temperament with very straight play that reminds one of the former Sri Lankan batting greats Michael Tissera, Anura Tennakoon and Roy Dias.
Atapattu has now buried the horrendous beginning to his career and if he maintains this same cool and collected approach he should serve Sri Lanka's cricket for a long time to come.
Being still very young he has a lot more to learn and one thing is that he must be told that when he is on top of the bowling, he must endeavour to remain that way and score runs as much as possible and as quickly as possible.
On the second day morning when he was top of the bowling he failed to capitalise and push the runs. Had he done that he would have had a lot more runs to his name. Let's hope he will learn.
After Atapattu's show was over, Muralitheran made the remainder of the Test all his own as he spun rings around the Zimbabwean batsmen with some high class spin to bury them in the hills of Asgiriya.
Although being Sri Lanka's best bowler in recent times going over the 100 wicket mark, he had the sword of damocles hanging over him - what with doubts being expressed about his action.
But before this Test began it was made known that he had been cleared by the International Cricket Council and did he not celebrate with a rich haul of 12 scalps for 117 runs. In this game Muralitheran seemed to be bowling with a lot more ease and confidence and he should continue to prove troublesome to the Zimbabweans in the next Test too.
As in the case of the South Africans in Australia the Zimbabweans too seem to struggling against good spin bowling. Spin wizard Shane Warne made a mockery of the South African batsmen with some high class leg spin, googly, flippers and what not to bamboozle the Proteas.
Having been a leg spin, googly bowler myself I can vouch for the fact that this is the most difficult of the art of bowling. It requires a lot of hard work and determination to succeed. Once mastered a bowler of this type, especially if he can bowl a well disguised googly can make a fool of the batsmen. And Warne is doing just that in Australia.
The way one can counter good spin bowling is by using the feet and moving out to take the ball on the half volley. But none of the South African or the Zimbabwean batsmen seem capable of doing this which is a sad reflection on their batting. Had former Aussie captain Ian Chappell been on the scene he would have mauled this bowling. Chappell's footwork was impeccable.
With the South African batsmen struggling to come to terms against Warne, how much the Lankans must be yearning for a competent leg spinner when they tour South Africa in March!
Talking of cricket in Australia it is mystifying to find the world's best fielder Jonty Rhodes not being able to find a place in the team. Being the best fielder in the world Rhodes should have been an automatic choice considering that he can latch on to impossible catches, cause a vital run out and save something like 30 or 40 runs.
But with Rhodes not being considered shows that all is not well with South African cricket at the moment.