| Scorecard: | Zimbabwe v Sri Lanka |
The new Zimbabwe team suffered its hardest day yet in the field, as Sri Lanka scored 425 runs during the second days play and lost only one wicket in the process. The highlights were undoubtedly the massive scores by Marvan Atapattu and Kumar Sangakkara, who shared a record partnership against Zimbabwe.
From the first ball Sri Lanka showed more aggression than they had done the previous evening. Sanath Jayasuriya turned the first ball, from Tinashe Panyangara, to fine leg for a single, while Atapattu turned the next off his hips to the long-leg boundary. The over finished as Atapattu stood tall and produced a perfect off-drive for another boundary.
Zimbabwe had done their homework on Jayasuriya, though, and Hondo and debutant Tawanda Mupariwa kept him quiet and frustrated, giving him little to cut or swing off his hips. They had much less idea of how to restrain Atapattu, who was much more fluent, regularly producing classic drives with all the time in the world. But after 40 minutes of restraint, Jayasuriya finally broke out, driving two boundaries in an over from Mupariwa. Most of the runs, in fact, came from boundaries, which Zimbabwe failed to guard.
Atapattu reached his fifty first, just after morning drinks, with the team 100 coming up in the 30th over. Jayasuriya fell for 48 on that total, chasing a widish ball of good length from Mluleki Nkala outside the off stump and edging the ball to the keeper. Without addition the new batsman Sangakkara drove his third ball hard and low to mid-off, where Panyangara took the catch but was unfortunate enough to have it spill out as his elbows hit the ground.
After lunch the pair consolidated steadily, against tidy bowling but sometimes untidy fielding. The landmarks came: Sangakkaras fifty off 83 balls, then Atapattus century off 161 balls. On 104 he reached 1000 runs in Tests against Zimbabwe, in his 15th innings. Zimbabwes bowlers were perspiring and generally accurate, wisely keeping the ball well up to the bat. They conceded a lot of runs through third man for a long while but finally plugged that gap. Sri Lanka were able to keep the runs ticking over, but were never able to take full command.
At tea Sangakkara was on 91, but it took him another 35 minutes to reach his century, taking great care and being given few easy balls from the bowlers. Finally a nudge to fine leg not only brought him to three figures but also brought up the 300-run total and the 200 partnership. In the same over Atapattu reached 150, the eighth time he has reached that figure in 13 Test centuries. Two overs later he pulled a short ball from Nkala to midwicket, who spilled a sharp catch. Zimbabwes fielding during the day was a mixture of much excellent ground fielding, coupled with some bad misses.
Atapattu was perhaps, rarely for him, losing concentration, as not long after he drove back powerfully at Mupariwa, potentially a catch, but he didn t get a hand to it and took a painful blow on the shin. Sangakkara also skyed an attempted hit over the field, but mid-off running back could not reach it.
Taibu surprisingly delayed taking the second new ball, which was hard to explain as the old one was doing his bowlers no favours. Mark Vermeulen even came on to bowl some high-flighted off-breaks, but the batsmen refused to contemplate suicide. The second new ball was finally taken in the 88th over, but still brought Zimbabwe no change of fortune, except that it travelled off the bat more quickly. Another hard catch went down, Atapattu pulling Hondo to midwicket when on 184, and Zimbabwes bowlers wilted towards the end, runs coming at a greater rate.
Shortly afterwards the pair registered the highest ever Test match partnership against Zimbabwe, overtaking the all-time Test eighth-wicket record of 313 by Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq for Pakistan at Sheikhapura in 1996/97. Then Atapattu reached his sixth Test double-century, which was his third against Zimbabwe and his second in two Tests on this ground. Sangakkara, who scored 95 in the final session, finished not far off his own double-century, and more records threatened on the third day.
(Article: Copyright © 2004 John Ward)