Dwayne Bravo's 83 gave West Indies the first session's honours but Sri Lanka came back strongly to raise hopes of a win at Providence...
Chaminda Vaas' double-strike just after lunch, sandwiched between the key scalps of half-centurions Dwayne Bravo and Ramnaresh Sarwan, and another from Muttiah Muralitharan on the stroke of tea left Sri Lanka needing four wickets to win their first Test in the Caribbean. Bravo relished his first time opening the innings by scoring a fluent 83 and Sarwan's obdurate 72 gave West Indies hope of salvaging a draw but Sri Lanka came back hard to set up a tense final session. At 229 for 6 the hosts were battling the odds to pull off a great escape at the Providence Stadium.
West Indies began the final day facing a mountain to climb and Bravo and Sarwan took to it step by step. From the go it was evident they were playing for a draw; the first 15 overs yielded just 25 runs. Sarwan didn't score a boundary all session, reluctant to take any risks, and puttered along with tucks to the on side.
With fielders in the deep it appeared Sri Lanka weren't keenly trying to take wickets. Mahela Jayawaredene swapped himself from slip to leg slip and there was another catcher close-in against the spinners but men manning the boundaries encouraged easy singles. There were even doubles pushed into the covers, hardly something expected from a side with a shot at creating history.
Refreshingly, Bravo flourished in his promotion as opener. Though nowhere near as fluent as on the fourth evening - where runs came at a limited-overs rate - he and Sarwan patiently defied Murali's threat. Murali fizzed it up occasionally but Bravo released the pressure with tucks past the two leg-side catchers. Having been flummoxed by a doosra for cheap in the first innings, Bravo played Murali with aplomb. His tenth Test fifty came up with a thin outside-edge just wide of Mahela Jayawardene at slip, off Murali.
Bravo's second boundary came 124 deliveries after the first with a lovely pick-up flick over midwicket. Midwicket came in closer and Bravo repeated the shot before flat-batting another through the same region. It was against the run of play that he fell, at 156 for 1, popping a return catch back to Murali's right after he advanced and was beaten in the flight.
West Indies played out the session but came out rather lackadaisical after lunch. Marlon Samuels fell as he had in the first innings, pushing at one slanted across him for Kumar Sangakkara to take a diving catch. That was precisely what Chaminda Vaas was trying to do after lunch, push the ball across and away from Samuels, but there was no need to play at that particular delivery.
Twenty-one deliveries later the writing was on the wall. Vaas knew all too well that Shivnarine Chanderpaul had issues with the ball that comes in and that's precisely what he bowled to peg back his middle stump. Vaas continued to push the ball across Sarwan in a long spell but he remained obdurate and only picked the odd single off his pads. It took him some time to settle after lunch and his first boundary of the day came with a loft over midwicket in the 63rd over.
Thirteen overs later, with West Indies 212 for 4, Sarwan fell for 72 from 206 balls as he tried to tuck away Thilan Thushara, the left-armer. He copped the ball just on the knee roll and the umpire Billy Bowden upheld the appeal, even though the ball was sliding down leg stump.
Mahela Jayawardene's decision to delay the new ball worked superbly. With tea just moments away Ryan Hinds chose to sweep one from Murali down the leg side and was adjudged to have tickled an edge; replays, however, were inconclusive.
After quiet 16 overs on the trot in the first session Murali raised his decibel levels against Chris Gayle as the ball repeatedly struck his front pad. Gayle's 14 runs, from 59 balls, came mostly with flicks and hard-hand inside-edges past Sangakkara - besides good defence against a few from Thushara that kept low.
West Indies are two hours from safety but its going to be extremely difficult to stop Sri Lanka.
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