WI vs SL 2nd Test: Justin Greaves’ 180 runs… West Indies on the threshold of winning the Test series after 4 years

New Delhi. The second Test match being played between Sri Lanka and West Indies has now reached its most exciting turn. Where the Caribbean team is standing on the threshold of creating history. By the end of the fourth day’s play in Galle, West Indies had strengthened their grip on both the match and the series. His dream of winning the Test series for the first time in the last four years is now very close to turning into reality. The full credit for this strong position goes to the marathon innings of all-rounder Justin Greaves and the classic century of Shai Hope.

On the fourth day of the match, West Indies started their first innings with a lead of 318 runs for 4 wickets. Shai Hope was unbeaten on the crease after scoring 86 runs and Justin Greaves was standing with him. At the beginning of the day, Sri Lanka got a big opportunity when Hope was caught by the wicketkeeper on the ball of Milan Ratnayake. However, the Sri Lankan team did not make a strong appeal on this and made the big mistake of not taking DRS, which gave Hope a life.

Shai Hope, who missed the first Test due to a shoulder injury, took full advantage of this gift of life and completed his brilliant century in 199 balls. This was his third century in the last five Test matches, which shows his excellent form. Hope hit 10 fours in his restrained innings of 112 runs and made best use of his moves against fast bowlers and spinner Prabhat Jayasuriya.

However, Hope’s dismissal just before lunch was extremely unfortunate. Wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis could not catch the ball clearly on the ball of left arm spinner Sonal Dinusha, but the ball escaped from his gloves and went straight to the stumps. At that time, Hope’s foot was slightly outside the crease and he was stumped. In this way the historic partnership of 242 runs for the fifth wicket between Greaves and Hope ended.

Justin Greaves’ ‘One Man Show’
Justin Greaves did not lose his patience even after Shai Hope was out. Playing ahead of 85 runs, he completed his century in the first 201 balls, which was the third century of his Test career. After this, he along with the lower order tired the Sri Lankan bowlers. Facing 325 balls, Greaves played a very struggling inning of 180 runs, which is the second highest score of his Test career.

Batting intelligently with the lower order batsmen, Greaves added 113 runs for the last five wickets. Due to this, in response to Sri Lanka’s huge 549 runs, West Indies’ first innings ended at 499 runs. West Indies remained only 50 runs behind Sri Lanka on the basis of first innings, which completely changed the equation of the match. Fast bowler Asitha Fernando bowled disciplined for Sri Lanka. He kept the batsmen busy by making good use of short-pitched balls and took 5 wickets for 130 runs in 40 overs. This was the third ‘five-wicket haul’ of his Test career. Whereas Prabhat Jayasuriya got three successes.

Sri Lanka’s second innings and current situation
The Sri Lankan team, which entered the second innings with a slight lead of 50 runs in the first innings, had a bad start. This time Lahiru Udara, who scored a century in the first innings, returned to the pavilion without opening the account. His partner Nishan Fernando also got out after scoring only 20 runs. After this, experienced Dinesh Chandimal (40 runs not out) and Kamindu Mendis (30 runs not out) took the lead. There is an unbeaten partnership of 60 runs between the two for the third wicket. By the end of the fourth day’s play, Sri Lanka had scored 92 runs after losing 2 wickets in their second innings and their total lead has now reached 142 runs.

last day equation
If we look at the statistics of the match so far, the pitch has been completely favorable for the batsmen. In the first four days, both the teams together have scored a total of 1,140 runs and only 21 wickets have fallen. In such a situation, it will be a big challenge for any team to take 10 wickets on the last day. If Sri Lanka has to win this match, then it will have to set a challenging target for the West Indies by scoring fast runs in the first session of the fifth day and then all out the Caribbean team. West Indies won the first match of the series by a huge margin of an innings and 217 runs. In such a situation, to win this two-match series, West Indies just has to draw the match on the last day. If West Indies is successful in drawing this match, then it will win its first Test series in 4 years. Earlier in 2022, it had won the Test series against Bangladesh on its home soil. West Indies are now just a few overs away from creating history.