The Sri Lanka openers reached 29-0 earlier than stumps on the fourth day and batted by way of the entire rain-affected first session on Friday to place the vacationers on the trail to a draw.
By lunch Sri Lanka was 93-0 and Karunaratne and Thirimanne had given the vacationers the stable basis they wanted to keep away from virtually any risk of defeat. Their possibilities of chasing down such a considerable fourth-innings goal have been small; whereas the pitch on the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium was nonetheless enjoying nicely on the fifth day, it was sluggish and didn’t favor quick scoring.
Thirimanne was the primary man out with the rating at 101 within the thirty ninth over. Karunaratne adopted within the 56th over after compiling his first half century of the collection.
Fernando and Chandimal caught collectively for nearly 24 overs to safe the draw, with Fernando posting his third half century in 9 checks.
The collection ended with each matches drawn however Brathwaite was blissful along with his workforce’s general efficiency.
There have been good pitches in each take a look at matches and the bowlers clearly labored arduous, he mentioned. I used to be happy that not one of the guys ever gave up, even all the way down to Alzarri (Joseph) within the final spell of the match, nonetheless giving it all the pieces.
Batting-wise we proceed to bat quite a lot of overs … 90-plus overs which is a constructive for us. Yes, we might have preferred to have received however I used to be very proud of the angle we had and the self-discipline.
The collection noticed a batting renaissance of types from Brathwaite who, whereas making solely 3 and 23 within the first take a look at, confronted 167 deliveries.
His 126 within the first innings of the second take a look at got here from 311 balls and his 85 within the second innings from 196 deliveries, that means he confronted 674 balls within the quick collection, a marathon effort.
When you lead a workforce, you want to guide from the entrance and I used to be blissful to get to these scores, Brathwaite mentioned. One of the principle issues for me was to maintain it easy.
The first take a look at I managed to bat quite a lot of balls with out getting the scores I’d have preferred. I made certain I had a stable plan and batted 100%.
Sri Lanka captain Karunaratne was additionally blissful along with his groups efficiency which was one among its finest not too long ago in an away collection. He mentioned there are nonetheless vital enhancements to be made, along with his workforce taking wickets in patches however gifting away runs and needing to bowl line and size.
When you’re enjoying a take a look at recreation, persistence is a key,” Karunaratne mentioned. “We want to enhance our persistence after we are batting additionally. Those are the little issues we have to enhance after we are enjoying take a look at cricket.
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