COLOMBO, 14 July 2005 — Captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul and debutant Denesh Ramdin scored half centuries to guide West Indies to 271-6 on the opening day of their two-Test series against Sri Lanka.
The inexperienced tourists, missing 10 leading players due to a protracted player contracts dispute, were expected to struggle against a full-strength Sri Lanka team but produced a battling display that left the home side frustrated.
Chanderpaul, the only West Indies player with more than 10 caps experience, led from the front with a skilful and tenacious 69 not out, an innings that mixed crab-like defense with sweetly-timed clips and drives.
The 30-year-old left-hander, added 79 in one-and-a-half hours with Ramdin and another 79 with off spinner Omari Banks after the tea interval in an unbroken seventh-wicket stand. The partnerships helped West Indies recover from a shaky 113-5 and gave them a chance of posting a respectable first-innings score after their brave decision to bat first under overcast skies.
Teenage wicketkeeper Ramdin, a 19-year-old from Trinidad and Tobago, kick-started the fightback with a powerful 56 from 73 balls that included nine boundaries.
Ramdin rode his luck against the fast bowlers, edging on three separate occasions either over or just wide of a large cordon of slips, while Chanderpaul lived fortuitously against spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan. Muralitharan bowled tightly and with growing confidence on his return to the international arena after an 11-month lay-off after two shoulder operations, finishing with one for 56 from 29 overs.
The 33-year-old off spinner, who came close to trapping Chanderpaul lbw with his doosra on a couple of occasions, was not helped by an easy-paced pitch that offers the prospect of a high-scoring Test match.
Earlier, Sri Lanka had made an ideal start to their 150th Test when Chaminda Vaas swung back a delivery into the pads of 19-year-old Xavier Marshall (10) to win an lbw.
Runako Morton, 26, then showed early fight with a plucky and aggressive 43 from 74 balls, sharing a useful 58 run stand for the second wicket with Sylvester Joseph. Sri Lanka regained their initiative before the lunch break though when rookie all-rounder Gayan Wijekoon was awarded a marginal lbw appeal against Joseph. Muralitharan then bowled Morton after luring the right-hander into ambitious drive.
West Indies went to lunch on 105-3 before slipping deeper into the mire immediately after as Narsingh Deonarine (12) was caught behind flashing at a wide delivery from Malinga.
Dwaine Smith was trapped plumb lbw two balls later by a fast full-length Malinga inswinger. Ramdin, one of three debutants in the West Indies side, reacted positively to the crisis and stroked his way to a maiden fifty off just 64 balls.
