Plagued by injury and his place on the line in all three forms of the game having been sidelined in 2018 over fitness, veteran batsman Angelo Mathews bounced back in the flamboyance of a Trojan at work marathon maiden double century in underlining that though he was down, he was not out as the 32-year old took apart Zimbabwe in wresting the initiative Sri Lanka’s way on the declaration of 515 for 9 declared for a first innings lead of 157 runs on the fourth day of the first Test match at the Harare Sports Club grounds on Wednesday. It was an ideally self defining 468-ball innings of character tucked in to the solidness of 16 hits to the ropes and the heaving of 3 sixes. It was a typical return to top flight business of test cricket not so heavyweight as the opposition was as the right hander, once known for
his firecracker batsman ship in his heyday like when he pounded the mighty England to a historic Test victory on a century and a half knock as Mathews tolled the 8 runs required to speed to his 10th Test century before blossoming to a magical unbeaten 200. Zimbabwe had replied with 30 for no loss reducing the deficit to 127 on a day the Lankan middle order clicked in identical knocks of 63 runs apiece by Dhananjaya de Silva (112 balls, 7×4) and Niroshan Dickwella (120 balls, 3×4) before Suranga Lakmal transformed from strike bowler to a 2-sixer
filled 41-ball bludgeoning of 27 runs in speeding Sri Lanka past the 500-run mark from a productive 49-run seventh wicket alliance with a ballooning Mathews at the other end on 196. Watch did the Trojan run maker the demise of Suranga Lakmal and Lasith Embuldeniya in quick succession with no addition to the total on 510 before reaching the magical 200 in the company of Kasun Rajitha before the latter’s dismissal for 1 when the Lankan declaration was affected with Mathews unconquered.
CHIEF SCORES:
Zimbabwe 1st Innings 358 All out (148 Overs) Run rate: 2.41 and 30/0 (17 Overs) Run rate: 1.76
(P.S. Masvaure n.o. 15, B.S. Mudzinganyama n.o. 14)
Sri Lanka 1st Innings 515/9 decl. (176.2 Overs) Run rate: 2.92
(A.D.Mathews n.o. 200, D.M. de Silva 63, N. Dickwella 63, R.A.S. Lakmal 27, Sikander Raza 3/62, V.M. Nyauchi 3/69, S.C. Williams 2/104)
By Srian Obeyesekere
-The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Sri Lanka Cricket-