It has long been all too familiar for West Indies cricket fans. Another Test match, another underwhelming performance, another big defeat. This time, the Caribbean side was defeated by all of an innings and six runs. Batting first, Sri Lanka ran up a sizeable 484 at Galle for the first Test of the series. West Indies could only respond with 251 and 227 following on.
I would say how disappointing it must have been for Caribbean viewers but those who bothered to forsake sleep in order to follow the action must, by now, developed some degree of numbness to such results. I currently reside in the USA, and recently had a visitor from Jamaica who told me of someone in her district who literally cried whenever West Indies lost. I didn't believe her. Nobody could still be so emotional about something that has become so commonplace.
It's not only that West Indies lost badly; more galling is how easy they made it for Sri Lanka to win. If the visitors' bowling at times lacked penetration it was mostly steady. Their fielding and batting, however, was nothing if not substandard.
All of five catches were dropped, none of them particularly difficult. Dinesh Chandimal, for instance, was gifted at least three lives by blundering fielders, the first of which came when he had only 11 runs to his name. He went on to make 151. Lahiru Thirimanne and captain Angelo Mathews were also given second chances.
Now, every side drops catches. But you shouldn't expect to do well against good teams if you regularly allow top batsmen second and third chances. As much as dropped catches are a part of the game it frustrates bowlers and can deflate the spirit of the entire side. How heart breaking it must be to see a batsman who ought to have been comfortably sitting in the pavilion run up a gigantic score.
Holder was right, ""We created chances with the ball," he remarked, "but we just didn't take them when they came. If we had, their first innings total would have looked a lot different. If we had a new batsman in at crucial stages when our fast bowlers were fresh we would have had a chance to have a good burst at them."
Save for Jermaine Blackwood, who compiled a defiant, shot-filled 92, the West Indies batsmen, especially the most senior ones, have little of which to be proud. Rangana Herath was always going to be a difficult proposition for relatively untried batsmen, but too many of the more seasoned players contributed to their own downfall.
Darren Bravo, one of the West Indies' main players, received a testing delivery in the second innings and made 50 in the first. But the shot he played minutes before lunch on the third day was poorly executed, even though it took some catching by Chandimal.
Marlon Samuels, another top batsman, was unlucky in the first innings when a ball heading far down the leg side was diverted by his thigh onto his leg stump. His second innings dismissal, however, off the first ball he faced, was all his doing. It was not surprising that he refused to stride forward to Herath's good length delivery his feet are always lethargic at the beginning of his innings but he unwisely chose not to play (he might have been expecting turn) when the ball was heading directly for his stumps.
Ramdin drove at Milinda Siriwardana without getting close enough to where the ball landed in the second innings, and captain Holder was run out after chasing down the pitch at Herath, only for the ball to be redirected to Mathews at slip via the batsman's pads.
Basically, the visiting batsmen didn't force the hosts to work hard enough for their wickets. They never seemed to have a plan to combat Sri Lanka's heavy reliance on Herath. If they did, they never executed it well enough. Relatively easy runs were available elsewhere, especially from the supporting spinners, had the batsmen chosen to employ the required patience and smarts.
Issue could also be taken with a few of the players chosen for this first Test. Choosing five bowlers, as the West Indies did, was bound to deplete the batting, but the deficit might have been limited if Carlos Brathwaite, who has shown ability with the bat, was chosen as one of the five.
Another of the five should have been newcomer, Jomel Warrican. Spin was always going to play a big part, as it often has at Galle; the surface was bound to be slow. And yet, the West Indies chose to play just one front-line spinner. Selection is not an exact science, and it might not have mattered had they played, but playing either of them, if choosing both was too bold, may have been worth a try.
The second Test, which begins in Colombo on October 22nd, gives the visitors a chance at redemption. The batsmen have the opportunity to improve upon their Galle effort by exhibiting more patience and more focus. Bravo and Blackwood showed at Galle that they are able to cope for a long time against Sri Lanka's attack. Holder, Ramdin and Brathwaite all had periods of relative ease. And we know that Samuels can be as good a player of spin as anyone in the game.
West Indies bowlers were not really dominated despite the big score that the home team accumulated. Bishoo captured four wickets and might have had more were it not for the slippery fingers of the fielders. Perhaps this time, if West Indies decides to stick to the five-bowler strategy, Warrican might be offered a spot. In August, when India played and won there, spin accounted for 22 of the 38 wickets that fell. Playing two front-line spinners might just be worthwhile.
Nothing the West Indies does will matter, of course, if they don't hold on to their catches.
Cricbuzz
