Hope, Greaves lead strong response from Windies against Sri Lanka

ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Unbeaten half centuries from Shai Hope and Justin Greaves have allowed West Indies to claw back into the second Test match against Sri Lanka having been on the backfoot for the first two days of the contest.

With the Windies in serious danger at 144 for four at one stage, Hope and Greaves shared an unbroken partnership of 174 runs for the fifth wicket to carry them to safety at 318 for four at the end of the third’s day play at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.

It has left them trailing Sri Lanka’s mammoth first innings total by 229 runs, but more importantly, brought them within arm’s reach of avoiding the follow-on heading into Monday’s penultimate day of action.

Beginning the day on 58 for one, John Campbell and Kavem Hodge continued from where they left off the previous day, with Campbell impressing with his stroke play.

He pulled pacer Asitha Fernando over deep midwicket for six and followed with a boundary off the next ball to move into the 40s.

Campbell then brought up his fourth Test half century in scintillating fashion by pulling Milan Rathnayake in front of square for another boundary two overs later.

The pair looked set to take the Windies to lunch until Campbell threw his wicket away trying to hit a bouncer from Asitha Fernando out of the ground, but only got it as far as the fielder at deep midwicket to be dismissed for 72 off 154 balls, to make the score 122 for two.

Sri Lanka struck immediately after the break, when Prabath Jayasuriya had Amir Jangoo caught at short leg for just nine and he also ended Hodge’s wretched innings of 31 runs off 139 balls nine runs later when he had him caught behind, to reduce the Windies to 144 for four.

Still in need of another 206 runs to avoid the follow-on, the West Indies were rescued by the partnership between Hope and Greaves.

It almost ended as soon as it started when Greaves darted for a quick single after driving a delivery from Jayasuriya to mid-on, but the throw barely missed the stumps with the batter well short of his ground.

Hope, who missed the opening Test due to a shoulder injury, was in fine nick from the start of his innings, with none of Sri Lanka’s bowlers causing him any discomfort on a flat pitch.

They carried the score to 219 for four at tea, with Hope unbeaten on 38 and Greaves on 36.

Hope reached his seventh Test half-century soon after the resumption by clipping Isitha Wijesundara through the onside for a couple of runs, with Greaves not too far behind, arriving at his second Test half-century with a single off Fernando.

Hope did have a nervous moment when he inside edged a delivery from Wijesundara behind to the wicketkeeper, but he was unable to hold on to the tough chance.

From there though, it was smooth sailing for the duo, with both players ending the day in sight of centuries on their way to posting the best fifth-wicket partnership for the West Indies against Sri Lanka in Tests.

Hope has so far scored 86 runs off 173 balls with nine fours, while Greaves is unbeaten on 85 off 162 balls, comprising 10 boundaries.

For Sri Lanka, Fernando (2-74) and Jayasuriya (2-77) have both taken two wickets.