Day5: Contest ended by more rain
After a third successive day of poor weather in Galle, the Second Test
between Sri Lanka and Australia has concluded in a predictable and
disappointing draw. Although, unlike yesterday, some play (albeit only
fifteen minutes' worth) was possible on this fifth and final day, the advent
of heavy rain through the morning sadly ensured that proceedings were again
abandoned long before stumps were officially due to be drawn. For the
record, the Sri Lankans finished at 0/55 in their second innings - Marvan
Atapattu (28) and Sanath Jayasuriya (21) having added eleven runs in the
four overs and two balls that were able to be bowled.
Accordingly, it is a sense of frustration which proves the most manifest
emotion at the end of this match. Moreover, in a series in which ball has
generally dominated bat, the spectre of a draw in the clash was both
unexpected and disappointing. Prior to the intervention of several
torrential downpours in this city in Sri Lanka's far south west, this was
another contest (much like the first in the series) which had indeed
appeared headed for a finish well inside five days and as though it might be
about to afford the home team a second successive victory over the
Australians - and, hence, a history-making series triumph.
Nevertheless, the result - which ensures that Sri Lanka continues to hold a
1-0 lead in the series - should not be regarded as having been entirely
fruitlessly achieved. This was again a match in which excellent spin
bowling, particularly from Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralitharan, featured.
Warne (3/29) was brilliant in the first innings of the contest, at first
slowing the Sri Lankans' progress before claiming three vital wickets on a
helpful surface to restrict them to a total of 296. After his team had been
plundered for runs during the course of a first wicket partnership of 138,
Muralitharan (5/71) then produced yet another of the stunning displays of
spin bowling artistry for which he has become renowned over recent years,
taking five wickets in the post-tea session on day two. In a period of
ninety minutes in which he transformed the complexion of the Test, the off
spinner bemused a series of Australian batsmen (most notably, Justin Langer
and Mark Waugh, who continued to look all at sea as they battled to save
their shaky-looking Test careers) with the extent of his turn and his
variation, establishing the basis of a collapse which saw the Australians
plunge to a total of just 228. Although he bowled nervously initially, and
showed little preparedness to flight his deliveries, debutant Rangana Herath
(4/97) should also be given credit for his fightback on day three, when he
claimed four wickets in quick succession to mop up the Australian tail.
Generally, there was little to admire in the batting , but there were four
individual innings which stood out. Although none compiled a genuinely
outstanding hand, Aravinda de Silva (60) and Russel Arnold (50) played two
steadfast hands for the home team, while Michael Slater (96) and Greg
Blewett (62) performed much the same mission in the Australians' response.
Slater and Blewett, in fact, combined to register Australia's highest
opening stand in four years and indicative of their dominance in their
team's batting performance was the notion that no other player could even
reach a score of twenty.
And so, while the Sri Lankans can probably claim something of a moral win
over the Australians (for their overall lead of 123 runs with ten second
innings wickets in hand may well have proved sufficiently large for them to
lay the platform for another victory had enough time to complete the game
been available), the series consequently remains in the balance at the end
of this match. The outcome will not be definitively settled until the
completion of the Third Test, which starts in Colombo in three days' time.
